The Borehole Geophysics Research Laboratory (BGRL) situated in Karad, Maharashtra is a first of a kind and the only laboratory in India that has been helping scientists to study earth’s deep secrets for nearly five years now (Fig 1). Set up in 2014, BGRL has enabled scientists to get access to a variety of samples […]
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UNESCO’s executive board in its July 2020 meeting designated 15 new areas as new geoparks. Geoparks are single and unified geographical areas where sites and landscapes of international geological significance are managed with a holistic approach (UNESCO 2020). With these 15 newly designated areas, the total number of sites in the Global UNESCO Geoparks Network […]
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The seemingly high tech electric vehicles were surprisingly first invented more than a hundred years ago. As with many early inventions it is hard to accord its origin to a single inventor, but the English electrical engineer Thomas Parker is said to have invented the first practical e-vehicle in the year 1884. There was a […]
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After the discovery of the stratospheric ozone hole over Antarctica, scientists across the world raised concerns over its catastrophic impacts and called world leaders to deliberate and take measures to save the ozone layer. The Montreal Protocol of 1987 was the outcome of these continuous deliberations and provided direction to phase down the consumption and […]
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Why this unusual weather pattern? The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), in its press releases informed that intense Western Disturbances caused widespread rainfall/snowfall over the Western Himalayan region as well as squally thunderstorms over the adjoining plains of north-west India. Western Disturbances are cyclonic storms associated with the mild-latitude subtropical westerly jet. These are low pressure […]
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India came out as a frontrunner in the fight to tackle climate change after the Paris climate negotiations in 2015, especially when the Indian Prime Minister spearheaded a massive, 121 country-wide intergovernmental organization – the International Solar Alliance – dedicated to increasing solar energy and reducing dependence on fossil fuels globally. In fact, solar power is a […]
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What is the Arctic haze? Arctic haze is a phenomenon that occurs at higher latitudes due to anthropogenic air pollution. It appears as a “visible reddish-brown haze” and has the capacity to remain in the northern atmosphere for several months. The extended severity of this pollution in the air mass system during winter, is majorly […]
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Remote sensing is a tool for data acquisition through two primary techniques-active and passive. Active remote sensing is employed in polar regions during consistent cloud cover and darkness, where the sensor in orbit (eg., LIDAR and RADAR) sends its own signal and records the backscatter signal. During cloud-free conditions, however, the passive remote sensing measures […]
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Alarming amounts of ships exhaust gases emitted worldwide forced the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to issue some restricted maritime legislation for reducing the adverse environmental impacts arising from such emissions. Consequently, ships emission reduction became one of the technical and economic challenges that the ship operators are facing. The present paper addresses the different strategies […]
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The monsoon in India is responsible for meeting the freshwater requirements of more than 1.3 billion people living in the country. The moist southwest monsoon winds bring plenty of rainfall from June to September. India’s GDP is closely linked with the monsoon as agricultural production is largely dependent on the quantum of rainfall (Gadgil and […]
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