Chennai: The ministry of earth sciences has embarked on a study to understand the close relationship between Indian monsoon and climate in the Arctic region.

Inaugurating the state-of-the-art Centre for Ocean Research at Sathyabama University, secretary of earth sciences ministry Dr Shailesh Nayak said that extreme natural disasters, like the floods in Kedarnath, resulted in releasing a large amount of heat into the atmosphere and the circulation pattern changed, the heat thus reaching the Arctic.

“Our study shows that in the past, colder times in the Arctic led to some kind of drought condition in India. We’ve seen this by studying the data in the last 10,000 years. Thus, there is impact on both sides. We think that there is a relation between the Arctic and the Indian monsoon. So we have set up an observatory both in the ocean and land in the Arctic to study it,” he said.

Various agencies under the earth sciences ministry, like the Indian meteorological department, had developed a model to predict how the temperature would be in the future.

Dr Nayak said that the Indian Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and its Japanese collaborator would soon carry out a major experiment to investigate the use of gas hydrates as fuel for the future. Complimenting Sathyabama University for setting up the Centre, Dr Nayak said that such research bodies would help the university attract even better faculty for world class research.

Earlier, speaking at the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), on the sidelines of an international symposium on underwater technology, Dr Nayak said that a three-year exploration expedition to survey the underwater terrain of the Indian Ocean would start by December 50 years after the first mission was undertaken. It would involve collaboration with various international scientific agencies and the National Institute of Oceanography.

The secretary further said that the expedition would seek to study various phenomena related to the field of ocean sciences.

“Besides, it will be an effort to map the underwater terrain of the Indian Ocean and search for potential mineral resources like copper and cobalt.”