- Atmospheric Remote Sensing
- Research Department
- Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI)
- Folkborgsvägen 1
- Norrkoping
- 60176
- Sweden
- +46 (0)11 495 8043
Abhay Devasthale
Email: Abhay (dot) Devasthale (at) smhi.se
Current research work
I am a scientist at the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) in Sweden working in the framework of EUMETSAT's Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring (CM-SAF). The details on CM-SAF's climate monitoring products can be found here at http://www.cmsaf.dwd.de .
Primarily, I am involved in the development of long-term global cloud climatology from the AVHRR sensors onboard series of NOAA satellites.
I am keenly interested in the remote sensing of convective systems, Indian monsoon, and aerosol-cloud interactions inferred from the satellite sensor data.
I am also involved in studies dealing with the inter-calibration of satellite sensors, analysis of data with the tools like EOFs, SVD etc.
Space based remote sensing for the climate monitoring and the process studies
I am an ardent supporter of the space based remote sensing (satellites and all that stuff!!!). The satellites have become an integrate part of our lives. It is indeed difficult to imagine our day-to-day life without coming across satellite applications.
But, perhaps the most powerful applications of data from the satellite sensors are for climate monitoring and the process studies. Just imagine the feelings of people at the time when they had a first glimpse of imagery of Earth from space. Thanks to satellite sensors, we are now routinely monitoring vital components of our Earth System.
The challenge now lies in smartly translating these long-term data into valuable information. Since the last six years, it is been a pleasure for me to get to know the fascinating world of clouds and aerosols, very important players in the complex web of Earth System component interactions.
It is very difficult to put into words how much we have learned in the past few decades about clouds and aerosols due to satellite sensor data. And yet every time we glance outside the window of airplane and observe the intricate structure of clouds, they remind us that there is still a long way to go!