Dr. Vinoj completed his Ph.D. in atmospheric science from the Centre for Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences (CAOS), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore in 2009 under the guidance of Prof. S. K. Satheesh. During this period, his research focused on characterizing aerosol optical and microphysical properties over the south India using ground, ship, aircraft and satellite measurements. These were then used to estimate the aerosol radiative effect. He then continued his research as a research associate at Divecha Centre for Climate Change (DCCC) and CAOS for a short period before joining the United States Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) at Richland, Washington in 2010. At PNNL, his mentor was Prof. Phil Rasch, the Chief Scientist and Lab Fellow at Earth Systems Analysis & Modeling Division. He switched over to modeling from observations at this stage to understand the effect of aerosols on Indian monsoon rainfall using global climate models (CAM5/CESM). After completion of his post-doctoral training, he joined the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bhubaneswar as an assistant professor in 2013.
Currently, he along with a small team of researchers and students at IIT Bhubaneswar investigate the effect of aerosols (tiny suspended particles in the atmosphere) on climate with specific focus over the Indian region. They use in-situ ground, aircraft, ship and satellite based aerosol and other supplementary measurements along with global and regional climate models simulations to address this issue.
Our current research focuses on the following,
1. Indian Monsoon
2. Aerosol-Cloud Interaction
3. Air Pollution and
4. Urban Climate