Vikash Kumar
NCPOR, Goa
Vikash Kumar is a Scientist at the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research, Goa, India, specializing in past climate and ocean studies. He holds a BS-MS dual degree with a major in Earth Sciences from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata (2012). Thereafter, he joined the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology Pune (IITM) as a trainee scientist at the Centre for Advanced Training (CAT). He joined the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research as a scientist in 2016 upon completion of his training at IITM Pune. Working in the Paleoceanography division at NCPOR, he obtained a PhD in marine sciences from Goa University with a thesis examining the teleconnections between past high and mid-latitude climate and Indian Monsoon variability. His research focuses on polar climate reconstructions while also delving into their global teleconnections. A significant aspect of his work investigates how northern and southern high-latitude climate change impacts the Indian climate system in different time frames. Selected as Associate in 2023.
Session 3A - Lectures by Fellows and Associates
E Krishnakumar, RRI, Bengaluru
Polar climate reconstructions and Indian monsoon teleconnections
Earth's climate is a dynamic system that varies over a wide range of time scales. Across the globe, large-scale atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns connect distinct sub-systems that are dominant over different locations. As a result, the climate variability over different regions on the planet is inextricably linked to each other. Here, we explore past linkages between high-latitude climate variability and tropical climate sub-systems, focusing on paleoclimate reconstructions in the Arctic and Southern Ocean and their impact on the Indian monsoon. In the Southern Ocean, a sediment core analysis from the Indian sector during the last glacial period provided rare quantitative data on climate variability in this data-sparse region. The work highlights an inter-hemispheric linkage between the Indian monsoon and surface conditions in the Indian sector of the Southern Ocean in the millennial time frame. In the Arctic, western Svalbard fjords are ideal for investigating paleoenvironmental changes due to their unique glacial marine contrast, proximity to vital current systems, strong biophysical coupling, and high sedimentation rates. Our work on surface and core sediment samples from one such fjord demonstrates a high climate sensitivity and provides a high-resolution record of paleoenvironmental changes during the last millennium. Moreover, the reconstructed Arctic record forms a highly coherent pattern with the Indian monsoon variability during the last millennium, likely modulated by meridional thermal gradients over the Indian monsoon domain.