Avenues of Education, Research and Employment Opportunities in Weather and Climate

Dr. Sushil Kumar Dash, President of ‘FERCC’ was invited by the South Asian Meteorological Association (SAMA) to deliver the third lecture in SAMA-SRM Open class room lecture series in the virtual mode. This talk dwelt on the integration of the three most important aspects such as education, research and employment opportunities in the field of Weather and Climate (W&C). In the first and second parts of this lecture it was enumerated that W&C science has grown enormously in the last 100 years or so due to the use of sophisticated earth observing systems, improved understanding of the physical processes, development of numerical weather forecasting and climate prediction models and state-of-the-art computing systems. Growth of several scientific institutions across the world and their close collaboration in education and research has made tremendous progress in W&C field. It is hoped that Global Weather Enterprise (GWE) through enhanced collaboration amongst public and private institutions can play significant role starting from better understanding of the earth-atmosphere-ocean system to developments in infrastructure to deliver climate services for the good of the society. The future models will realistically represent the effects of large cities to ensure reliable prediction of water cycle, energy budget, atmospheric flows, and dispersion in complex urbanized environments. AIML tools may be developed to provide tailor-made services to different public users. Data mining is another method which may enable socioeconomic benefits. In the third part of this talk it mentioned that as per the US Bureau of Labour (BLS) Statistics,Atmospheric scientists can expect an employment growth of 8% by 2030. Further, as indicated by a 2021 IMF study, green and sustainable infrastructure has an economic multiplier 2-7 times larger than traditional infrastructure investment. Finally, this lecture left the message that all scientific societies related to weather and climate should work in collaboration with each other with the objective of strengthening each other by adopting the best practices of others. Met Societies can act as the catalysts for close collaboration between Public, Private and Academia (PPA).  Climate education in schools, colleges and the society in general should be the focus of all these Met Societies.