2025
Parameterization of Surface Layer Processes in Extreme Weather Conditions over Mountainous Region
Singh, S. & Srivastava, P.
Weather and Forecasting, 1489-1510
doi.org/10.1175/WAF-D-24-0178.1
Start here
Boundary layer meteorology, surface layer parameterization, and numerical weather prediction over mountains.
Roorkee · 29.86°N, 77.90°E · 268 m
PhD researcher · fourth year
Shiwam Singh
Surface layer processes in weather prediction models over mountains
Centre of Excellence in Disaster Mitigation and Management, IIT Roorkee
I study the exchange of heat and momentum between the ground and the air just above it. Weather models handle this reasonably well over flat land. Over mountains, slope, stability and terrain-driven flow break the assumptions those schemes were built on. I use tower measurements from the Himalaya to test where the standard formulations fail, and to work out what performs better in complex terrain.
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peer-reviewed papers
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conference presentations
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workshops and summer schools
idealised profile, stable nightu(z) · θ(z)
What I work on
How surface-atmosphere exchange is represented in numerical weather prediction models over complex terrain, and where those representations fail.
research statement
Surface layer parameterization
Monin-Obukhov similarity theory provides the flux calculation in nearly every operational model. It assumes horizontal homogeneity, flat terrain and constant flux with height, none of which hold over a mountain. I compare how different stability functions perform against measured fluxes, particularly under stable stratification at night, and quantify the error that results.
Turbulence measurements
The evaluation depends on direct measurement. I work with high-frequency eddy covariance data from sonic anemometers sampling at 20 Hz and above, and compute turbulent heat and momentum fluxes from it. Despiking, quality control, coordinate rotation and sorting the record by stability regime all come before anything is compared against the model.
High-resolution modelling
WRF-ARW is the model I use most, with the urban canopy model and the chemistry module where the problem needs them, and RegCM for longer regional integrations. At kilometre resolution over the Himalaya the results are sensitive to terrain smoothing, land-use classification and the choice of boundary layer scheme, so much of the work is systematic sensitivity testing.
Link to disaster forecasting
An error in the simulated surface energy balance carries into the simulated convection, which matters for forecasting cloudbursts and the rainfall that triggers landslides in the Himalaya. I contribute the atmospheric modelling to group work of this kind, including a study of the July 2024 Wayanad landslide and an impact-based heat stress warning framework for a coastal city.
Mathematics background
I came to atmospheric science from pure mathematics, with a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in the subject and master's projects on the Riemann-Roch theorem for function fields and on arcs in finite projective spaces. It is useful for working inside the numerics rather than treating the model as a black box: the schemes are differential equations with closure assumptions, and both can be checked directly.
Education
Degrees, doctoral work and master's projects.
2013 to present
Doctoral research
July 2023 to present · fourth year
Ph.D., Disaster Mitigation and Management
Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
Centre of Excellence in Disaster Mitigation and Management (CoEDMM). Research on the
representation of surface and boundary layer processes in numerical weather prediction models
over mountainous regions.
November 2022 to July 2023
Junior Research Fellow
CoEDMM, IIT Roorkee
Project: “Improved Representation of Surface Layer Parameterizations in the
Weather Research and Forecasting Model”.
Degrees
2020-2022
M.Sc. Mathematics GPA 8.16
Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad
Department of Mathematics.
2016-2019
B.Sc. Mathematics 66.28%
Kisan P.G. College, Dr. RMLAU Ayodhya
Department of Mathematics, Uttar Pradesh.
2014-2016
Class XII 72.6%
R.S. Inter College, Shivpur, Bahraich
2013-2014
Class X 85.17%
Mahanand Awasthi Inter College, Shivpur, Bahraich
Master's projects
July 2021 to December 2021
Riemann-Roch Theorem for Function Fields
IIT Hyderabad
Algebraic function fields, divisors, genus, and the statement and proof machinery
of Riemann-Roch in the function field setting.
January 2022 to June 2022
Arcs in Finite Projective Spaces
IIT Hyderabad
Combinatorial geometry over finite fields, with connections to algebraic coding
theory and maximum distance separable codes.
2019, 2020 · 2022, 2023
JAM and GATE qualified
Joint Admission Test for Masters in 2019 and 2020; Graduate Aptitude Test in
Engineering in 2022 and 2023.
Experience
Research positions held, and the modelling systems I work with.
CoEDMM, IIT Roorkee
Positions
November 2022 to July 2023
Junior Research Fellow
Centre of Excellence in Disaster Mitigation and Management, IIT Roorkee
Worked on “Improved Representation of Surface Layer Parameterizations in the
Weather Research and Forecasting Model”. This work led directly into the doctoral research.
November 2022 to present
Numerical weather prediction and model development
Centre of Excellence in Disaster Mitigation and Management, IIT Roorkee
Hands-on with WRF-ARW, WRF-UCM, WRF-Chem and RegCM for high-resolution weather and
climate simulation, together with subgrid-scale parameterization work driven by high-frequency
eddy covariance observations over complex mountainous terrain.
Day to day work
Model configuration and runs
Nested high-resolution domains over the Himalaya, sensitivity experiments across
boundary layer and surface layer schemes, and comparison against station and reanalysis data.
Source-code level modification
Editing and recompiling surface layer routines in Fortran to test alternative
similarity functions and flux formulations rather than only switching between namelist options.
Observation processing
Eddy covariance flux computation, despiking and quality control, stability
classification, and evaluation using correlation, mean bias, MAE, RMSE and index of agreement.
Collaborative field and case studies
Atmospheric modelling contributed to multi-institution studies of landslides,
extreme rainfall and urban heat stress.
Modelling systems
Publications
Peer-reviewed journal articles.
3 papers · 2025-2026
2025
Chronicle of Destruction: The Wayanad Landslide of July 30, 2024
Yunus, A.P., Sajinkumar, K.S., Gopinath, G., Subramanian, S.S., Kaushal, S., Thanveer, J.,
Achu, A.L., Islam, S.M.U., Ishan, A., Krishnapriya, V.K., Rajaneesh, A., Dewrari, M., Dixit, S.,
Singh, S., Srivastava, P., Oommen, T., Nedumpallile-Vasu, N., Sen, S., Narayana, A.C.,
Ambili, V., Pradeep, G.S. & Kuriakose, S.L.
Landslides
doi.org/10.1007/s10346-025-02494-y
2026
A Framework for Impact-Based Heat Stress Warning System for a Coastal City in India
Kacker, K., Utpal, A., Singh, S., Srivastava, P., Mukherjee, M.,
Subramanian, S.S. & Rakesh, R.
Scientific Reports
doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-38639-9
Conference presentations
Work presented at international meetings in Japan, the United States, Singapore, India and Austria.
8 presentations · 2024-2026
Towards Improved Parameterization of Surface Turbulent Fluxes in Extreme Weather Conditions over Mountainous Region
Srivastava, P. & Singh, S. (2024)
9th GEWEX Open Science Conference
07-12 July 2024 · Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan
07-12 July 2024 · Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan
Applicability of Monin-Obukhov Similarity Theory in Stable Conditions over Mountainous Region
Singh, S. & Srivastava, P. (2024)
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
Issue 2168, NH31F-2168
Issue 2168, NH31F-2168
Modelling and Analysis of Heat Stress over an Urban City in India
Utpal, A., Srivastava, P., Singh, S. & Subramanian, S.S. (2025)
JpGU Meeting 2025, Session A-AS05
Weather, Climate and Environmental Science Studies using High-Performance Computing
Weather, Climate and Environmental Science Studies using High-Performance Computing
Numerical Weather Prediction Model Underestimated the Extent of Extreme Rainfall Event During the 2024 Wayanad (Kerala, India) Landslide
Srivastava, P., Singh, S., Singh, S., Prabhakaran, A., Subramanian, S.S. & Pulpadan, Y.A. (2025)
JpGU Meeting 2025, Session A-AS03
26-31 May 2025 · Chiba, Japan
26-31 May 2025 · Chiba, Japan
Evaluation of the Impacts of Land Use / Land Cover Changes on Weather Forecast Using the WRF Model over an Urban Area (Dehradun) in India
Yalakala, G., Srivastava, P. & Singh, S. (2025)
AOGS 2025, 22nd Annual Meeting, Abstract AS66-A012
27 July to 01 August 2025 · Singapore
27 July to 01 August 2025 · Singapore
Evaluation of Different Similarity Functions Under Stable Conditions over a Mountainous Region
Singh, S. & Srivastava, P. (2025)
INTROMET-2025
18-20 November 2025 · IITM, Pune, India
18-20 November 2025 · IITM, Pune, India
Evaluation of Different Parameterizations for the Computation of Surface Fluxes over Mountainous Region
Singh, S. & Srivastava, P. (2025)
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts 2025
A41L-VR8809
A41L-VR8809
Parameterization of Surface Layer Processes under Stable Conditions over Mountainous Region
Singh, S. & Srivastava, P. (2026)
EGU General Assembly 2026, Abstract EGU26-801
3-8 May 2026 · Vienna, Austria
3-8 May 2026 · Vienna, Austria
Awards and honours
Travel support, prizes and national qualifying examinations.
2019 to 2026
Early Career Scientist Travel Support Awardee
European Geosciences Union, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria
03 May to 08 May 2026
Registration fee waiver · €300 travel support · APC refund
Awarded for research on surface-atmosphere exchange processes over mountainous regions.
Awarded for research on surface-atmosphere exchange processes over mountainous regions.
Travel Grant Awardee
HPC4Climate Summer School 2025, Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Lauenburg, Germany
28 July to 07 August 2025
€500 travel grant to attend the summer school.
Second Prize, Poster Presentation
Research Scholar's Day, Centre of Excellence in Disaster Mitigation and Management, IIT Roorkee
13 October 2025
Poster: “Analysis of Observed Behavior of Heat and Momentum Fluxes Over Mountainous Region”.
National qualifying examinations
Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering and Joint Admission Test for Masters
GATE 2022 and 2023 · JAM 2019 and 2020
Qualified on all four attempts.
Scholastic achievements
Joint Admission Test for Masters (JAM)
Qualified in 2019 and 2020.
Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE)
Qualified in 2022 and 2023.
Workshops, schools and training
Mathematics training programmes, disaster risk workshops, data assimilation courses and instrumentation training.
10 programmes · 2018-2025
Mathematics Training and Talent Search Programme (MTTS), Levels 0, I and II
MTTS Trust, at IIT Guwahati (Level 0) and IISER Thiruvananthapuram (Levels I and II)
28 May to 23 Jun 2018 · 20 May to 15 Jun 2019 · 18 May to 13 Jun 2020
FORESEED: Forecasting and Early-Warning of Extreme Events and Disasters
CoEDMM, IIT Roorkee
02-08 January 2023
Disaster Risk Reduction in Museums and Heritage Safety in the Himalayan Region
CoEDMM, IIT Roorkee
24-25 February 2023
Technical Workshop on Earthquake Early Warning System (EEWS)
CoEDMM, IIT Roorkee
10-12 April 2023
Workshop on Weather Prediction and Climate Model
IIT Roorkee
16-20 October 2023
Data Assimilation in Weather and Climate Models
International Centre for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS), Bengaluru
06-17 May 2024
Advanced Data Assimilation and Inverse Modelling in the Earth System and Climate Sciences
National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), Hyderabad. Four-day customised training
21-24 January 2025
CRITICAL: Co-producing Risk-informed, Gender-responsive Actions and Adaptation Pathways at Local Level
CoEDMM, IIT Roorkee
30 January 2025
Training Session on Eddy Covariance Systems
Campbell Scientific India, at Lemon Tree Premier, Delhi
02 May 2025
HPC4Climate Summer School 2025
Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg, held at Lauenburg, Germany
28 July to 07 August 2025
Skills and coursework
Computing environment, modelling tools, and the formal coursework behind them.
technical profile
Technical skills
Programming languages
Work environment and markup
Graphing utilities and GIS
Models
Mathematics coursework
Algebra
Analysis
Applied mathematics
Climate change and disaster management
Methods used routinely
Get in touch
Open to collaboration on surface layer observations, mountain boundary layer modelling and NWP evaluation.
Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India
Happy to discuss turbulence measurements over complex terrain, boundary layer schemes, or
WRF setups for mountainous regions. Email is the quickest way to reach me.
Shiwam Singh · born 03 March 2000
Centre of Excellence in Disaster Mitigation and Management
Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Uttarakhand 247667, India