CURRICULUM VITAE

Veerabhadran Ramanathan                                                                                    January 2025

Edward A. Frieman Endowed Presidential Chair in Climate Sustainability (Emeritus), and Distinguished Research Professor (2021-Now) of Climate Sciences at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego;

Adjunct Professor (2021-Now), Department of Global Development, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.

Born: Chennai, India. November 24, 1944

Address: 1980 Caminito El Canario, La Jolla, CA 92037. Phone No: 858-337-3114

Table of Contents

 1) Major Scientific Achievements                                                                     : 2-5

2) Biodata                                                                                                              :  5-7

3) Honors                                                                                                              :  8-9                                                                                                                     

4) Six Most Important Publications*                                                                :  10                                                                         

5) Narrative of the six Most Important publications in climate science    : 10-15

6) Climate Solutions:  Climate Resilience                                                        : 15-16

7) Books*- Edited and Co-Authored (Selected List)                                       : 16-17

8) Reports* (Selected List)                                                                                  : 17-18

9)  Narrative of Major Publications(Climate Science)                                    : 18-22

*For full list of all publications, see: http://www-ramanathan.ucsd.edu/about/publications.php

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1) Major Scientific Achievements

See  Narrative Section-5 below for more detailed description with supporting references

Overall Summary:

Identified and quantified with direct observations and analyses, how the solar and thermal (Infrared) radiation fields interact with the atmospheric greenhouse gases and particles; and how these radiation interactions govern the basic radiative- forcing terms driving climate change, as well as the numerous climate feedback processes regulating climate and climate change.

1. Discovery of Greenhouse Effect of Non-CO2 gases: Super Pollutants:

Made fundamental discoveries to show that changes in non_CO₂ greenhouse gases, such as halocarbons (CFCs and HFCs), tropospheric and stratospheric ozone, among others, are as important as CO₂ in determining the radiative forcing of climate change. Showed for the first time, reductions in stratospheric ozone, will cool the surface.                                     

These discoveries established the now accepted fact that non-CO₂ gases are  major contributors to planetary warming;  also enabled the Montreal protocol to become the first (albeit accidental) successful climate mitigation policy; and led to the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal protocol for phasing out HFCs (the replacement refrigerant for CFCs). For these findings, he was awarded the 2009-Tyler Prize by Nobel Laureate Sherwood Rowland. Fellow Nobel Laureate, Paul Crutzen, wrote in the announcement:

"I consider currently Dr. Ramanathan to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest, climate researcher".

2. Testing Climate Theory with Predictions:

Ramanathan and collaborator Roland Madden were the first to make the statistical prediction that the warming should be detected above the background climate/weather noise by 2000, a prediction which was verified by the UN's IPCC experts-report by published in 1995 and 2001.                                                                                                                                                           

He followed this prediction, with a series of studies with his students during 2009 to 2018, to make another prediction that the planet will cross the 1.5⁰C warming by 2030 or earlier. The planet crossed the 1.5⁰C warming in 2024, but that warming must persist beyond 2030 to support the prediction by Ramanathan and his colleagues. WMO, which originally predicted that warming would cross 1.5C only after 2040, now (2024) concludes that the warming will likely cross 1.5⁰C by early 2030s.                                                        

3. Link between water vapor, its greenhouse effect and climate warming:

{Background: From 1979-1989, Ramanathan led a NASA team, which launched a series of satellites in the 1980s,  called  Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE), to design a new approach for extracting directly (from satellite instruments) the greenhouse effect and the radiative forcing by atmospheric gases, aerosols and cloud.

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    Quantified, for the first time with direct observations from ERBE Satellites, the greenhouse effect of the atmospheric greenhouse gases (water vapor, CO₂, Ozone and Methane are the major naturally occurring ones), showing that the atmosphere trapped about 1/3 of the infrared (thermal) energy given off by the surface;  more importantly,  it showed that the water vapor increased with surface temperature similar to the predictions by the Clausius-Clapeyron thermodynamic equation (as  postulated theoretically  by Arrhenius in the 1880s and Manabe in the 1960s); and this water vapor increase with temperature was accompanied by increase in atmospheric greenhouse effect. The net inference was, the interaction between water vapor and temperature can amplify warming by  a factor of 1.8 to 2, confirming the predictions of models (by Manabe and others).                                                                                                                                             

Until the Ramanathan-led studies, our understanding of the amplifying effect of water vapor feedback, was based only on model studies. Another implication of the observational verification is that intense weather can intensify more with warming due to the atmosphere becoming more humid, releasing more latent heat in turn driving more intense winds.

4. Clouds have the dominant cooling effect on the Planet:

   Quantified, for the first time with direct observations from the ERBE satellite, the simultaneous greenhouse warming effect  as well as the albedo- cooling effect (reflection of solar radiation back to space) of clouds. These data revealed that the albedo effect dominated the warming effect by almost a factor of 2. This finding proved for the first time;  clouds had a net large global cooling effect. Until this study, our understanding of the climate effect of clouds was based only on model studies. The observed large net cooling effect of clouds, combined with the inadequate treatment of clouds in climate models, led to the deduction that cloud-climate feedback is the largest source of uncertainty in predictions by most if not all climate models.

5. Short Lived Climate Super Pollutants (SLCPs): Policy outcomes attributed to Ramanathan's Research.

Ramanathan's   original studies that began in the 1970s on the greenhouse effect of halocarbons and other non-CO₂ greenhouse gases and the more recent studies on the large warming effect of black carbon, led him to conclude that mitigation of short lived climate super- pollutants (black carbon, methane, ozone in the lower atmosphere and HFCs) which stay in the atmosphere for a short time (hence the name SLCPs) will slow down global warming by as much as 50% by 2050 and reduce sea level rise by about a third by 2100.

   The UNEP formed the Climate and Clean Air coalition (CCAC) in 2012 with 60 countries including USA, to promote mitigation of SLCPs. For his work on SLCPs, Ramanathan received the Blue Planet Award in 2021 and the CCAC scientific excellence award.  Citations from Blue Planet Award: https://www.blueplanetprize.org/en/projects/2021prof_ramanathan/prof_ramanathan_s3.html.                             

"2021 Blue Planet Prize for his decades-long work on climate effects of non-CO₂ pollutants, including the role of short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) and black carbon research."  

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"In November 2021, the reduction of SLCP emissions, which Professor Ramanathan had been advocating for years, was finally agreed upon at COP26." From Blue Planet citations.

6. Mathematical Modeling of Human-Natural Systems Interactions:

Ramanathan and his former student Xu developed in 2021, a new class of climate models with four new differential equations that account for inertia in the social systems arising from delays in decision making and time it takes to scale up technologies. The model’s new analytical framework reveals the fundamental importance of factoring in the role of human–natural interactions that are missing in most if not all climate models used in IPCC and opens new doors to account explicitly social systems in addition to the traditional natural systems.

This model revealed that, inertia in the human decision making and inertia in scaling up renewable technologies can delay bending of the warming curve by another 15 to 20 years, beyond the time-delays due to the inertia in the natural system. Inertia in the natural system results from the thermal inertia of the oceans. This is a new class of integrated socio–energy–ecologic–climate model framework for understanding the role of human–natural systems interactions in climate change. The framework revealed the time-constraints on climate stabilization imposed by feedback between global warming and delays in societal actions to decarbonize energy use as well as the inertia for scaling up atmospheric-carbon extraction technologies.

Experimental Breakthroughs: 1) Indian Ocean Experiment (INDOEX). Ramanathan was the Co-Chief scientist, of INDOEX,  the most comprehensive filed experiment (Designed with Co-Chief scientist and Nobel Laureate Paul Crutzen) of 100+scientists, that created an observing system of multiple-aircraft, ships, satellites and surface observatories, to measure aerosol chemistry at millionth of a meter scale, to radiative forcing over the entire Indian Ocean.

2) Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs or Drones): Developed unmanned aircraft platforms for making aerosol and air pollution measurements and their radiative forcing (first do so), including for the first time the amount of solar energy absorbed by black carbon in diesel + biomass soot.

These experimental breakthroughs  helped document the cooling effect of sulfate-nitrate-organic aerosols and the large warming effect of black carbon soot aerosols. The unmanned aircraft platforms, coordinated with satellite data, helped tracking brown clouds pollution worldwide including over the Indian Ocean, South China Sea and off the California coast.  Ramanathan and his team flew over the Indian Ocean, three heavily instrumented UAVs stacked about 1 mile apart vertically (first time for any field studies) and  measured for the first time the trapping of solar radiation by black carbon soot aerosols within the atmosphere.

Selected Honors: He was appointed as the science advisor to Pope Francis’ holy see delegation to the historic 2015 Paris climate summit and in addition advised California Governor Jerry Brown. He was named the UN Climate Champion in 2013; has been elected to the US National Academy, the American Philosophical Society, the Royal Swedish Academy and the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (Council Member). The American Meteorological Society awarded him the Rossby medal in 2002, its highest award. Foreign Policy named him a thought leader for

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2014; In 2018,  he was named the Bert Bolin Lecturer by Stockholm university and Tang Laureate for sustainability science by Tang foundation in Taiwan;  He was awarded the Blue Planet Prize in 2021; and the honorary degree by Univ. of Massachusetts, Boston in 2023.

2) Biodata

Born: Chennai, India. November 24, 1944

EDUCATION:                                                                                                                          

B.E., 1965 Annamalai University, India (Eng.)
M.Sc., 1970 Indian Institute of Science, India (Engineering Science.)
Ph.D., 1974 State University of New York at Stony Brook (Planetary Atmospheres)

CAREER POSITIONS:                                                                                                                      

1965-1967: Engineer, Shri Ram Refrigeration Industries, Secunderabad, India

1974-1976: National Research Council Post Doctoral Fellow, NASA Langley Research center and George Washington University, Hampton, VA

1976-82: Scientist, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO

1979-2000: Principal Investigator, NASA Earth Radiation Budget Experiment & NASA-CERES

1982-1986: Senior Scientist, NCAR, Boulder, CO

1986-1990: Professor, Department of Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL

1990-2021:  Distinguished Professor of Climate  Sciences, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, CA

1991-2021: Director, Center for Clouds, Chemistry and Climate, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, CA

1996-2006: Founding Director, Center for Atmospheric Sciences, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, CA

2012 to 2016: UNESCO  professor, TERI university, New Delhi, India.                                                       

2016 to 2021:  Distinguished Frieman Endowed Presidential Professor of Climate Sustainability(Emeritus), Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, CA

2021-Now:  Distinguished Research Professor of Climate Sciences, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, CA

2021-Now: Adjunct Professor, Cornell University

OTHER POSITIONS:                                                                                                             

2024-Now: Chair, Climate Resilient California and Californians, a Transdisciplinary sub-national initiative, by experts in California government, California University,  NGOs and Civil Society.            

2022- Now: Co-Chair, From Climate Crisis to Climate Resilience, Climate Resilience Initiative by Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Vatican City.                                                                                                

2012-Now: Council Member, Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Vatican City                                             

1992-2014: Board of Directors, Tata Energy Research Institute-USA branch, Arlington.

1993-1995: Chief Scientist, Central Equatorial Pacific Experiment (CEPEX)

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1996-2002: Co-Chief Scientist, Indian Ocean Experiment (INDOEX)

1996-2002: Chair, International Steering Committee, INDOEX

1999-2003: Science Editorial Board, NASA Earth Observatory

2002-2012: Chair, Atmospheric Brown Cloud Project (ABC)

2015- 2020: Chair, Bending the Curve: Ten Climate Solutions, An initiative of University of California.

2017 to 2021: Chair, Bending the Curve: Climate Solutions Course, to educate one million climate warriors at universities.

ELECTED TO NATIONAL  & GLOBAL  ACADEMIES: National Academy of Sciences, USA; Royal Swedish  Academy of Sciences; Pontifical Academy of Sciences; Academia Europea; American Philosophical Society; American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Indian Academy of Sciences; The World Academy of Sciences.

RESEARCH INTERESTS: Physics of Climate Change; Climate Feedback; the Greenhouse Effect; Air Pollution; Clouds; Aerosols, Global Climate Models. Climate Mitigation, Solutions to the climate change problem, Societal Transformation for climate mitigation and Climate Resilience solutions

Selected Graduate Students (GS) and Post Doctoral fellows (PD) who started their careers with me: J.T. Kiehl (NCAR; PD), V. Ramaswamy (Director, GFDL; PD); W.D. Collins (UC Berkeley & DOE; PD), J.P. Chen (Assoc. Prof. Natl. Taiwan Uni; PD), S. Sherwood (Prof., Australian Natl Univ; GS), C. Weaver (Senior Scientist, EPA), S. Satheesh (Prof., IISc; PD); W.D. Conant (Assoc Professor, ASU; GS), E. Wilcox (Assoc Professor; Desert Res Center, Nevada); Yan Feng (Argonne Natl Lab; PD); Frida bender (Asst Professor Stockholm Univ; PD) Yangyang Xu (Asst Prof; Texas A&M; GS)

COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIPS:

Science Advisor, The Holy See delegation to UN climate summit representing Pope Francis,

Paris, 2015; and the Holy See delegation to UN Climate summit at Marrakech, 2016.

Steering Committee: Cooling for All, United Nations Sustainable Energy for All; 2017- 2020.

Steering Committee for the Scientific Assessment on Energy Efficient and Climate-Friendly Cooling, United Nations Environment Program. 2018- 2020.

Council Member: Pontifical Academy of Sciences. 2012- Now.

Science Advisory Panel: Climate and Clean Air Coalition, UNEP.

Member, Global Climate Leadership Council; University of California.

2010- now; Editor, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science Member,

Science Directions Advisory Council, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 2008-2010. 2013-2016.

Advisory Committee, Stockholm Environment Institute 2012-2015.

Member, Strategic Advisory Board, Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS), Potsdam, Germany.

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Chair, Pontifical Academy of Sciences "Fate of Mountain Glaciers in the Anthropocene" Report, 2010-2011.

Member, UNEP Black Carbon Advisory Board 2009-2011.

Member, Committee for the 2008 Trieste Science Prize, 2008-2012.

Chair, Committee on Strategic Advice on the US Climate Change Science Program, National Academy of Sciences, 2006-2010.

Member, Advisory Board, World Clean Air Congress, 2005-2008.

Los Alamos National Laboratory Committee, 2001-2004.

Editorial Board, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Indian Academy of Sciences, 2000-2004.

Member, Scientific Steering Group, Rapid non-linear Climate Change, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change, 1997-1999.

Associate Editor, Tellus A, 1995-date.

Member, International Council of Scientific Unions, Advisory Committee on the Environment Review Team, 1994-1999.

Member, Board of Reviewing Editors, Science, 1992-1997.

Member, NAS Board on Global Climate Change, 1991-1994.

COURSES TAUGHT: Bending the Curve: Climate Solutions. This course is a hybrid course developed for undergraduates with the goal of providing scientific and technological tools to a million undergraduate students from around the world to solve the climate change problem. Graduate courses taught:  Four Dimensions of Climate Change; Radiative Transfer; Climate Dynamics; Global Warming-Scientific Basis; Introduction to Climate & Climate Change; Climate and Atmospheric Sciences.

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3) Honors

The link below gives the news release for most of the awards:

 http://www-ramanathan.ucsd.edu/about/honors.php

2023: Honorary Doctor of Science, University of Massachusetts Boston.

2021: Blue Planet Prize. https://www.blueplanetprize.org/en/projects/2021prof_ramanathan/prof_ramanathan_s3.html.

2018: TANG Prize (shared with James Hansen) in Sustainable Development; “for their pioneering work on climate change and its impact on the sustainability of the earth.” http://www.tang-prize.org/en/media_detail.php?cat=23&id=906; http://ccacoalition.org/en/news/veerabhadran-ramanathan-wins-2018-tang-prize-sustainable-development.

2018: Climate Action Champion award from the North American Carbon World. http://www.nacwconference.com/speaker/veerabhadran-ramanathan/

2018: Bert Bolin Lecturer, Stockholm University. https://www.science.su.se/english/about-us/news/bert-bolin-climate-lecture-2018-1.38573.

2017: Haagen-Smit award given by California’s Air Resources Board for Climate Change research and for establishing the need for deep reductions in short-lived climate pollutants to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of global warming.  https://www.arb.ca.gov/research/hsawards/winners/2016winners.htm

2016 Revelle Medal awarded by UCSD.

2016, Science Advisor, the Holy See delegation to the climate summit: COP-22 at Marrakech;

2016 National Council for Science and the Environment Lifetime Achievement Award recipient.

2016 Received the Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Climate Change from the BBVA foundation

2015 Science Advisor; Holy See Delegation to UNFCC COP-21 Summit at Paris, 2015.

2014 Listed as Foreign Policy Magazine's Top 100 Global Thinkers of 2014

2014 Elected honorary fellow, Indian Academy of Sciences.

2014 The Asian Heritage Award for Science and Technology, Video

2013 Champion of the Earth Laureate for the Science and Innovation category, the United Nations Environment Program.                                     

2012 One of eight included in the European Commission Book “Air & Climate Conversations about Molecules and Planets with Humans in Between”

2012: Appointed to the Council of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences by Pope Benedict

2011: Elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

2009: Commencement Speech, University of California, San Diego Sixth College, June 13, 2009  2009 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement with co-recipient Dr. Richard Alley.

2008 Zayed Prize for scientific and technological achievements in environment with co-recipient Prof. Jane Lubchenco, June 2008

2008 8th Annual Henry W. Kendall Memorial Lecture, MIT, May 2, 2008.

2007 Global and Regional Climate Change: Underlying Science and Emerging Riddles. Video 

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2007 Cozzarelli Paper of the Year Prize. The National Academy of Sciences. SIO.

2006 Bjerknes Lecture, American Geophysical Union, Global Dimming and Its Masking Effect on Global Warming.                                                     

2006. Elected to American Philosophical Society.

2004 Elected to Pontifical Academy of Sciences by Pope John Paul II. SIO News Release

2004 Johannes Gutenberg Lecturer; Mainz Germany.

2003. Pioneer Award, the National Science Foundation. Washington DC.
"In recognition of your vision, leadership, and entrepreneurial spirit in pioneering the Science and Technology Center concept."                                       

2003 Alexander M. Cruickshank Lecturer.

2002. The Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal, American Meteorological Society.
The highest award given by AMS  "for fundamental insights into the radiative roles of clouds, aerosols and key gases in the earths climate system.     

2004 Elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

2000 W. S. Jardetzky Lecturer, Lamont Doherty Observatory, Columbia University.

1998 Elected to Stonybrook 40; Among Stony Brook's Finest Philosophers, Financiers, Administrators, Inventors, Jurists, Philanthropists......       

1997. Volvo Environment Prize, 1997 (shared with S. Manabe).
"for pioneering work over several decades has helped us to understand one of the critical aspects of human activity". Volvo Announcement                 

1996. Foreign Member, Academia Europaea.

1995. Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

1995. Buys Ballot Medal, Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences, 1995. 
One of the oldest prizes by the academy established in 1887 and given once every ten years. "For outstanding scientific work in the science of the atmosphere over the last decade or two".

1989. Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement, NASA.

1988. Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

1988. Fellow, American Meteorological Society.

1988. Fellow, American Geophysical Union.

1984. Distinguished Alumnus Award, SUNY, Stony Brook.

1981. Outstanding Publication Award, NCAR.

1975 Special Achievement Award, NASA.

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4) Six Most Important Publications (MIP-1 to MIP-6)

MIP-1: Ramanathan, V., 1975: Greenhouse Effect Due to Chlorofluorocarbons: Climatic Implications. Science, 190: 50-52.

MIP-2: Ramanathan, V., R. D. Cess, E. F. Harrison, P. Minnis, B. R. Barkstrom, E. Ahmad, and D. Hartmann, 1989: Cloud-Radiative Forcing and Climate: Results from the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment. Science, 243: 57-63.

MIP-3: Raval, A. and V. Ramanathan, 1989: Observational Determination of the    Greenhouse Effect. Nature, 342: 758-761.

MIP-4: Madden, R. A. and V. Ramanathan, 1980: Detecting Climate Change Due to Increasing CO₂ in the Atmosphere. Science, 209: 763-768.

MIP-5: Ramanathan, V., P. J. Crutzen, et al (2001). The Indian Ocean Experiment: An Integrated Assessment of the Climate Forcing and Effects of the Great Indo-Asian Haze. J. Geophysics. Res. Atmospheres,106, (D 22), 28371-28399.

MIP-6: Ramanathan, V., Xu, Yangyang and Versaci (2021).  Modelling human–natural systems interactions with implications for twenty-first century warming. Nature Sustainability, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-021-00826-z.

5) Narrative of the Six Most Important Publications

I. Non-CO₂ greenhouse gases: Super Pollutants

MIP-1: Ramanathan, V., 1975: Greenhouse Effect Due to Chlorofluorocarbons: Climatic Implications. Science, 190:50-52.                                                                                                                                                    

" Made fundamental discoveries to show that non_CO₂ greenhouse gases, such as CFCs and HFCs among many others, are as important as CO₂ in determining the radiative forcing of climate change".

From the time of Arrhenius' seminal paper in 1890s until 1975, climate scientists assumed that CO₂ was the only anthropogenic greenhouse gas. This assumption was proven wrong, with  Ramanathan's discovery of the super-greenhouse effect of  CFC-11 and CFC-12 (major refrigerants and propellants), which together were several thousand times more potent than CO₂ in warming the planet. sort of super-pollutants. In the follow-on study below (MIP-1.1) radiative forcing for all known non-CO₂ greenhouse gases were quantified, in addition to showing for the first time, reductions in stratospheric ozone including the Antarctic, will lead to cooling of the surface.  The MIP_1.1 study also introduced the term, Radiative Forcing, which has now become part of the climate lexicon.

 MIP-1.1: Ramanathan, V., R. J. Cicerone, H. B. Singh and J. T. Kiehl, 1985:Trace gas trends and their  potential role in climate change.  J. Geophysics. Res. Atmospheres, 90: 5547-5566.

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In 1985, WMO commissioned a report on non-CO₂ gases and appointed Ramanathan as the Chair of the report, published in 1985:

MIP_1.2: Ramanathan, V. et al. (1985), Trace Gas Effects on Climate, Atmospheric Ozone 1985: assessment of our understanding of the processes controlling its present distribution and change, WMO Report, no. 16, pp. 821-893.

Five Years later, IPCC published its first report, largely following the radiative forcing methodology proposed in MIP 1.2. Ramanathan was one of the authors of this first IPCC report.

These discoveries, combined with the discoveries under MIP-4, led not-only to scientific offshoots such as short-lived climate pollutants, Climate-Chemistry Interactions , but also major solutions-oriented policy initiatives such as: i) Climate and Clean-Air Coalition by UNEP to regulate short-lived climate pollutants for rapid mitigation of the warming; ii) the Kigali amendment to the Montreal Protocol to mitigate climate warming effects of HFCs and UNEP's; iii) formation of Atmospheric Brown Clouds project (chaired by Crutzen, Rodhe and Ram) involving US, Europe, China, Korea, Japan and India.

II. Radiative Forcing and Climate Response:

MIP-2: : Ramanathan, V., R. D. Cess, E. F. Harrison, P. Minnis, B. R. Barkstrom, E. Ahmad, and D. Hartmann, 1989: Cloud-Radiative Forcing and Climate: Results from the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment. Science, 243: 57-63.

Quantified, for the first time with direct observations from the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) Satellite, the greenhouse warming effect clouds and the albedo (reflection of solar radiation back to space) cooling effect of clouds and showed that the albedo effect dominated the warming effect by almost a factor of 2; and thus, proving for the first time,  clouds had a net large global cooling effect. Until this study, our understanding of the climate effect of clouds was based only on model studies.

The observed large net cooling effect of clouds, combined with the inadequate treatment of clouds in climate models, made cloud-climate feedback the largest source of uncertainty in predictions by all climate models.

MIP-3: Raval, A. and V. Ramanathan, 1989: Observational Determination of the Greenhouse Effect. Nature, 342: 758-761.

Quantified, for the first time with direct observations from the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) Satellite, the greenhouse effect of the atmospheric greenhouse gases (water vapor, CO₂ and Ozone are the major ones), showing that the atmosphere trapped about 1/3 of the infrared (thermal) energy given off by the surface;  more importantly,  it showed that the water vapor increased with temperature similar to the predictions by the Clausius-Clapeyron thermodynamic equation; and the water vapor increase was accompanied by increase in atmospheric greenhouse effect. The net inference was, the interaction between water vapor and temperature can amplify warming by  a factor of 1.8 to 2, confirming the predictions of models (by Manabe and others).  Until this study, our understanding of the amplifying effect of water vapor feedback, was based only on model studies.

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III. Testing Climate Change Theory with Predictions:                                                                             

MIP-4: Madden, R. A. and V. Ramanathan, 1980: Detecting Climate Change Due to Increasing CO₂ in the Atmosphere. Science, 209: 763-768.

Madden and Ramanathan estimated the ratio of signal predicted by the theory to observed climate-weather noise, and concluded that if the theory is reliable, the warming should be detectable  by or before 2000. This prediction was verified by IPCC reports published 15 and 20 years after our study, and we quote below from the IPCC reports:

IPCC- 1995- THE BALANCE OF EVIDENCE SUGGESTS A DISCERNIBLE HUMAN INFLUENCE ON GLOBAL CLIMATE ; IPCC-2001- There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities.

As Ramanathan was getting deeper and deeper into climate change forced by anthropogenic perturbations, he became fully aware of the large uncertainties in the theory (primarily not knowing how clouds and the cryosphere will respond to climate change) and became aware of the urgent need to test the theory.  Ramanathan tested the validity of the theory of climate change due to CO₂ increase, as postulated by Svante Arrhenius  in the 1880s and by Manabe during 1960s to 1980s, by making predictions with the theory.

Paper MIP-4  gave rise to a new field in climate change called: Detection and Attribution Science.

Ramanathan followed the 1980 prediction (MPI-4), with a series of studies during 2010 to 2018 (two listed below as MIP-4.1 and MIP-4.2 listed below), to make another prediction that the planet will cross the 1.5C warming by 2030 or before. The planet crossed 1.5 C warming in 2024, but that warming must persist beyond 2030 to be consistent with Ramanathan's predictions. WMO, which until last year predicted that warming would cross 1.5C only by 2040s, now concludes that the warming will likely cross 1.5C by early 2030s.

MIP-4.1 Ramanathan, V. and Xu, Y. (2010). The Copenhagen Accord for limiting global warming: Criteria, constraints, and available avenues., Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., 107 (18) 8055-8062.

MIP-4.2: Y. Xu, V. Ramanathan, & D. G. Victor. 2018. Global warming will happen faster than we think. Nature, vol. 564 | 30-32.

IV. Atmospheric Brown Clouds, Air Pollution and Climate Change

MIP-5: Ramanathan, V., P. J. Crutzen, et al (2001). The Indian Ocean Experiment: An Integrated Assessment of the Climate Forcing and Effects of the Great Indo-Asian Haze. J. Geophysics. Res. Atmospheres,106, (D 22), 28371-28399.

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Background: While predictions of when we will detect the warming predicted by theory were verified, the magnitude of the observed warming was much smaller (by about 40%) than that predicted by models. The likely cause, as suggested by model studies, was that particles emitted by air pollution (many are the same sources that emit CO₂) was reflecting sunlight thus offsetting some of the greenhouse warming. Estimation of this warming was mainly from model simulations which had inadequate if not flawed treatment of the complex chemistry and the radiative forcing by aerosols, particularly black carbon soot and organic aerosols. Particularly, how these particles were transformed inside clouds, was a black box.

Ramanathan teamed up with Chemist, Paul Crutzen and several aerosol chemists and cloud physicists (over 100 in all) and designed the Indian Ocean Experiment, which was one of the most, if not the most comprehensive field study that measured not only the chemistry but also the radiative forcing by particles and their interactions inside clouds. Ramanathan served  as the Co-chief scientist with Paul Crutzen. The net finding was particles emitted locally by vehicles and smokestacks, stayed long enough to become vast clouds of pollution covering an entire nation and even continents, which was named as: Atmospheric Brown Clouds. In a  series of papers led by Ramanathan (to list two of over 15 studies: MIP-5; MIP-5.1 and MIP-5.2), it was determined, for the first time with observed variables, the net effect of these particles was to cool the planet; but black carbon soot (which has different sources than cooling sulfates) had a major warming effect while sulfates, nitrates and organics had cooling effect.

MIP 5.1: Satheesh, S.K. and V. Ramanathan, (2000). Large Differences in Tropical Aerosol Forcing at the Top of the Atmosphere and Earth’s surface. Nature, 405: 60-63.  Using INDOEX data to show the large solar heating of the atmosphere and the large surface diming  by black carbon soot.

MIP 5.2: Ramanathan, V., C. Chung, D. Kim, T. Bettge, L. Buja, J. T. Kiehl, W. M. Washington, Q. Fu, D. R. Sikka, and M. Wild, (2005). Atmospheric Brown Clouds: Impacts on South Asian Climate and Hydrological Cycle. PNAS, Vol. 102, No. 15, 5326-First study that used coupled Ocean-Atmosphere climate model to suggest that brown clouds are responsible foe the observed decrease in the monsoon rainfall.

MIP 5.3 Ramanathan, V. and G. Carmichael (2008). Global and regional climate changes due to black carbon. Nature Geoscience, 1, 221-227. Quantifies the warming effect of black carbon and the regional climate effects .

V. Short Lived Climate Super Pollutants: Policy outcomes attributed to Ramanathan's Research

Ramanathan's  original studies that began in the 1970s on the greenhouse effect of halocarbons and other non-CO₂ greenhouse gases and the more recent studies on the large warming effect of black carbon, led him to conclude that mitigation of the  climate warming pollutants (black carbon, methane, ozone and HFCs) which stay in the atmosphere for a short time (hence the name SLCPs) will slow down global warming by as much as 50% by 2050 and reduce sea level rise by about a third by 2100³. This proposal has now been adopted by UNEP

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and 30 countries including USA. UNEP formed the Climate and Clean Air coalition in 2012, and Ramanathan was one of the first chairs and then the science advisor.

MIP 4.1 (Ramanathan and Xu, 2010) was the primary study that brought for the first time all four short lived climate pollutants (CFCs; HFCs; Methane; Ozone; Black Carbon soot) together in a quantitative study of the mitigation issue and shows how to limit global warming below 2 C using bending the emissions curve of CO₂ and SLCPs; shows global warming trend can be reduced rapidly by 0.6⁰C by 2050. The paper proposed the concept of managing the energy budget of the planet in addition to managing the carbon budget. The UNEP assessment published in 2011, basically confirmed the findings of this study.

One of the short-lived climate pollutants that was regulated first is HFCs which have been regulated by the Kigali amendment to the Montreal protocol, based on the study below: Xu, Y., D. Zaelke, G. J. M. Velders, and V. Ramanathan (2013), The role of HFCs in mitigating 21st century climate change, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13(12), 6083–6089.  

For his work on SLCPs, Ramanathan received the Blue Planet Award in 2021 and the CCAC scientific excellence award.  Citation from Blue Planet Award: https://www.blueplanetprize.org/en/projects/2021prof_ramanathan/prof_ramanathan_s3.html

"In 2010, he was contacted by the United Nations to lead an international committee on SLCPs. He accepted, invited an independent scientist to lead the report and he served as vice-chair. The committee published a report and founded the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) in 2012, which aims to reduce SLCPs".

"The CCAC is the first UN initiative to focus specifically on SLCPs. Initially launched with only six countries, the CCAC now includes more than 60 countries covering all regions of the world and supports a wide range of activities to reduce SLCPs. In November 2021, the reduction of SLCP emissions, which Professor Ramanathan had been advocating for years, was finally agreed upon at COP26."

VI. Mathematical Modeling of Human-Natural Systems Interactions: Ramanathan and XU created a new class of climate Models that can account for inertia in the Natural as well as social systems

MIP-6:  Ramanathan, V., Xu, Yangyang and Versaci (2021).  Modelling human–natural systems interactions with implications for twenty-first-century warming. Nature Sustainability, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-021-00826-z.

The redesign of energy and economic systems to stabilize climate change is hindered by the lack of quantitative treatment of the role that human–natural systems interactions play in what society can do to tackle climate change. None of the global climate models include  such interactions explicitly. We developed differential equations to model the inertia in scaling up renewable technologies and their dependence on societal actions. This is a new class of integrated socio–energy–ecologic–climate model framework for understanding human–natural systems interactions in climate change. The energy–climate feedback is modelled through four warming-dependent response times for

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societal, policy and technological actions inferred from historical data. We show that a lack of societal response beyond 2030 would result in a warming in excess of 3 °C. The model’s analytical framework and the analyses presented  reveal the fundamental importance of factoring in the role of human–natural interactions that are missing in most if not all climate models used in IPCC.

6) Climate Solutions: Climate Resilience

I. Bending the Curve: Ten Climate Solutions: Led a 10-campus university of California study to arrive at 10 solutions to the climate change problem.  His Co-Chairs are Professors Fonna Forman of UC- San Diego and Daniel Kammen of UC-Berkeley. The solutions included science/technology  pathways, societal transformation, governance, market instruments, technology innovations and atmospheric carbon extraction. The important  aspect of the bending the curve report (see below for reference) is that it calls for societal transformation as the top solution #2 and solution #3.  Ramanathan and Forman along with Scott Friese transformed the report into a UC system-wide course; and also promoting the course in other campuses. Stockholm University has adopted the Bending the Curve Course. For more details, see: https://btc.ucsd.edu.

Ramanathan, J. Allison, M. Auffhammer, D. Auston, A. D. Barnosky, L. Chiang, W. D. Collins, S. J. Davis, F. Forman, et al, 2016, Chapter 1. Bending the Curve: Ten Scalable Solutions for Carbon Neutrality and Climate Stability, Collabra, 2(1): 15, pp. 1–17,                                                    DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/collabra.55.

II. Solutions to avoid existential threats to people and ecosystems: In the two publications below, Ramanathan and colleagues used probability approach to assign risk categories to project climate changes. The study concluded that there is a 5% to 20% probability of climate change posing        existential threats... perhaps the first such physical science-based study to arrive at this conclusion. It proposes mitigation options that are still  available to society.   Xu, Y. and V. Ramanathan, 2017. Well below 2°C:Mitigation strategies for avoiding dangerous to catastrophic climate changes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The Three Lever Approach:  The report below (not peer reviewed) identifies the climate change problem as posing existential threats to all of society and species.   Develops  4-building blocks and three levers approach for solving the problem in time .  Ramanathan, V., Molina, M.J., Zaelke, D., et al. Full: Well Under 2 Degrees Celsius: Fast Action Policies to Protect People and the Planet from Extreme Climate Change. Published by the Institute of Governance and Sustainable Development, Washington DC, Sept 14, 2017.

III. Climate Resilience: The MAST approach. Motivated by the existential threat of unchecked climate change, Ramanathan is working with social scientist, Marcelo Sanchez- Orozco (Univ. of Massachusetts, Boston) and the Chancellor (Cardinal Turkson) as well as the President of Pontifical Academy of Sciences (Joachim von Braun) to develop a scientific approach, called MAST, to initiate a global movement to make   

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global movement to make people and ecosystem resilient to climate change. MAST consists of Mitigation (of emissions to reduce climate risks), Adaptation (to cope with unavoidable risks) and Societal Transformation to lead to a sustainable society that can thrive.  He and his Vatican colleagues are also forming an alliance between science, policy and religion to enable a transformational impact on society for taking actions to protect both people and nature.             

In May 2014, he organized along with Professor Dasgupta of Cambridge Univ and Chancellor Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo of Pontifical Academy of Science, a summit of thought leaders at the Vatican: http://www.academiadelasciencias.va/content/accademia/en/events/2014/sustainable.html He briefed Pope Francis and wrote two major articles in Science journal.

In November of 2017, he jointly organized another meeting at the Vatican bringing in health care professionals on climate Change and Health: https://www.pas.va/content/dam/casinapioiv/pas/pdf-volumi/scripta-varia/sv_HealthOfPeopleHealthOfPlanet.pdf

In July of 2022, he teamed with Joachim von Braun (President of Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences) and  commissioned a summit of experts from WHO, UNEP and academia to discuss: Resilience of People and Ecosystems under Climate Stress:  https://www.pas.va/content/dam/casinapioiv/pas/pdf-volumi/scripta-varia/sv152pas.pdf.

In May 2024, the earlier meetings culminated in a summit of Governors and Mayors commissioned by Pope Francis and chaired by Ramanathan and Suárez-Orozco. This summit led to a Planetary Call to Action for Climate Change Resilience. Published by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. This call to action was signed by Pope Francis, and several Governors and Mayors.  https://www.pas.va/content/dam/casinapioiv/pas/pdf-vari/statements/calltoaction_climate2024.pdf

7)  Books

 {Edited and Co-authored by Ramanathan}

Veerabhadran Ramanathan and Joachim von Braun, 2023: Editors and Co-Authors,  Resilience of People and Ecosystems Under Climate stress. Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Book of Conference Proceedings held at Vatican City.

Wael K. Al-Delaimy, Veerabhadran Ramanathan and Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, 2020: Editors & Co-Authors, Health of People, Health of Planet and Our Responsibility: Climate Change, Air Pollution and Health, Springer Open Book.

Ramanathan, V., 2019. Editor and Co-Author.  Bending the Curve: Climate Change Solutions. Regents of the University of California. Published by eScholarship, an Open Access Publisher of the University of California. Editor: V. Ramanathan. Co-Editors: Adam Millard-Ball; Michelle Niemann; Scott Friese. Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6kr8p5rq. 815pp

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S. Dasgupta, V. Ramanathan, M. Sanchez Sorondo, 2014: Editors Sustainable Humanity, Sustainable Nature, Our Responsibility, Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Book of Conference Proceedings held at Vatican City.

T. Kiehl and V. Ramanathan, 2006: Editors & Co-Authors. Frontiers of Climate Modeling. Cambridge University Press Book.

Paul J Crutzen and Veerabhadran Ramanathan, 1996: Editors and Co-Authors. Clouds, Chemistry and Climate. Springer Verlag Book. NATO ASI Series.

8) Major Reports & Op Ed

{Chaired and Lead-authored by Ramanathan}

Ramanathan, V; Suárez-Orozco, M; von Braun, J; Sr. Helen Alford; Turkson, P; Gustafsson, O; Hassan, M; Schellnhuber, J; Viana, V; Lee, Hoesung; McCarthy, G; et al........ ; 2024: Planetary Call to Action for Climate Change Resilience. Published by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. This call to action was signed by Pope Francis, and several Governors and Mayors.  https://www.pas.va/content/dam/casinapioiv/pas/pdf-vari/statements/calltoaction_climate2024.pdf

V. Ramanathan, 2023: Climate Resilience: Why, When and How. 2023. Chapter 1 in Resilience of People and Ecosystems Under Climate stress. Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Book of Conference Proceedings held at Vatican City.

V. Ramanathan. 2019. A 10-step plan for Congress to save the climate. The Hill. 

Ramanathan, V., Sanchez Sorondo, M., Dasgupta, P., von Braun, J., and Victor, D. V. 2018.  Climate Extremes and Global Health: New Ways to Make Progress. Foreign Affairs.

Veerabhadran Ramanathan, Juliann E. Allison, Maximilian Auffhammer, David Auston, Anthony D. Barnosky, Lifang Chiang, William D. Collins, Steven J. Davis, Fonna Forman, Susanna B. Hecht, Daniel Kammen, C.-Y. Cynthia Lin Lawell, Teenie Matlock, Daniel Press, Douglas Rotman, Scott Samuelsen, Gina Solomon, David G. Victor, Byron Washom, 2015 Executive Summary of the Report, Bending the Curve:10 scalable solutions for carbon neutrality and climate stability. Published by the University of California Press, October 27, 2015,  Integrated                        Assessment of Black Carbon and Tropospheric Ozone: Summary for Decision Makers. United Nations Environment Programme, 2011 (Link) Chair: D. Shindell. Vice Chairs: Fate of Mountain Glaciers in the Anthropocene, 2011. Co-Editors: V. Ramanathan, PJ Crutzen, L. Bengtsson, Pontifical Academy of Sciences, 2-4 April 2011 15pp.

To Fight Climate Change, Clear the Air, The New York Times Op ED, November 27, 2010. V. Ramanathan and D. Victor. The Op-ed piece that was picked up by policy makers that formed climate and clean air coalition.

Restructuring Federal Climate Research to Meet the Challenges of Climate Change. Lead Author: Ramanathan. 2009.  Committee on the Strategic

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Advice on the US Climate Change Science Program (2009). The National Academies Press: Washington D.C., 254 pp. This report was chaired by Ramanathan and commissioned by the US Govt.

Ramanathan, V., et al, 2008: Atmospheric Brown Clouds: Regional Assessment Report with Focus on Asia, published by the United Nations Environment Program, Nairobi, Kenya, pp. 1-360 UNEP ABC Home.

Ramanathan, V. et al. (1985), Trace Gas Effects on Climate, Atmospheric Ozone 1985: assessment of our understanding of the processes controlling its present distribution and change, WMO Report, no. 16; Vol III. Chapter: 15. First International assessment of CO2 and non-CO2 effects on climate change.

 9) Narrative Of Major Publications: Climate Science and Climate Solutions

I. Greenhouse Effect of Halocarbons and other non-CO2 gases: Ramanathan discovered¹ the super-strong greenhouse effect of Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in 1975; CFCs fall under the family of chemicals called halocarbons. Many of these halocarbons deplete the ozone in the stratosphere. The depletion of the stratospheric ozone, in turns, modifies the climate through a series of complex processes of radiation physics, which were unraveled in a study 1976² led by Ramanathan. This study showed that stratospheric ozone depletion will lead to a net cooling effect. In 1985, he led^3,4 the first international NASA/WMO/UNEP assessment on the climate effects of non-CO₂ greenhouse gases to obtain a broader acceptance of the climate effects of non-CO2 greenhouse gases; and the report concluded that they are as important as CO₂ to global climate change; a finding that was confirmed 13 years later by IPCC.

Ramanathan, V., 1975: Greenhouse Effect Due to Chlorofluorocarbons: Climatic Implications. Science, 190: 50-52.

Ramanathan., L. B. Callis and R. E. Boughner, 1976: Sensitivity of Surface Temperature and Atmospheric Temperature to Perturbations in Stratospheric Concentration of Ozone and Nitrogen Dioxide. J. Atmos. Sci., 33: 1092-1112.

Ramanathan, V., R. J. Cicerone, H. B. Singh and J. T. Kiehl, 1985: Trace Gas Trends and Their Potential Role in Climate Change. J. Geophysics. Res. Atmospheres, 90: 5547-5566.                                                        

Ramanathan, V. et al. (1985), Trace Gas Effects on Climate, Atmospheric Ozone 1985: assessment of our understanding of the processes controlling its present distribution and change, WMO Report, no. 16, pp. 821-893.

II. Physics of CO₂ Warming & Quantification of CO₂ climate sensitivity: His attention also included the physics of carbon dioxide infrared absorption. Along with a graduate student, Ramanathan published a fundamental study¹ on this topic showing the contribution by isotopic

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(C13, O17 and O18) bands, hot bands (transition from excited states) and combination bands of CO₂. It is because of these weak bands of CO₂ that the greenhouse effect of CO₂ will not saturate out even at concentrations hundred to thousand times the present-day value. In 1997, the Swedish academy of sciences asked him to review the seminal Arrhenius greenhouse model for CO₂.

Augustsson, T. and V. Ramanathan, 1977: A Radiative-Convective Model Study of the CO2-Climate Problem. J. Atmos. Sci., 34: 448-451

Ramanathan, V. and A. M. Vogelmann: Greenhouse Effect, Atmospheric Solar Absorption and the Earth’s Radiation Budget: From the Arrhenius/Langley Era to the 1990s, 1997: Ambio, 26(1): 38-46.

III. Radiative Forcing: The term, Radiative Forcing, is the universally accepted metric for the global warming effect of anthropogenic greenhouse gases. The paper below¹ refers to the net change in the net radiative flux at the tropopause as radiative forcing and most likely, this was the first time the term was introduced in the context of climate change.                                                             

Ramanathan, V., R. J. Cicerone, H. B. Singh and J. T. Kiehl, 1985: Trace Gas Trends and Their Potential Role in Climate Change. J. Geophysics. Res. Atmospheres, 90: 5547-5566.

IV. Development of the National Community Climate Model: He was among a team of six which developed the first version of the National Center for Atmospheric Research community climate model (CCM) in the 1980s^1,2. This climate model, in its more advanced form, has now morphed into one of the most widely used climate models in the US.

Ramanathan, V., E. J. Pitcher, R. C. Malone and M. L. Blackmon, 1983: The Response of a Spectral General Circulation Model to Refinements in Radiative Processes. J. Atmos. Sci., 40: 605-630. 

Pitcher, E. G., R. C. Malone, V. Ramanathan, M. L. Blackmon, K. Pure and W. Bourke, 1983: January and July Simulations with a Spectral General Circulation Model. J. Atmos. Sci., 40: 580-604.

V. Discovery of the Atmospheric Brown Clouds: He led (with Paul Crutzen) the Indian Ocean Experiment conducted with aircraft, ships and satellites in the 1990s. A series of studies^1-4 conducted with the Indian Ocean Experiment data discovered the widespread Atmospheric Brown Clouds (ABCs) over S. Asia. With students and researchers in his laboratory, he documented the large atmospheric heating by black carbon and surface dimming by black carbon and other pollutants in the brown clouds^1,8. He used observations and models with collaborators in India and the USA to show that the global dimming by brown clouds were largely responsible for the decrease of monsoon precipitation in India⁵ and later teamed with agricultural economists at UCSD to conclude that global warming by CO₂ along with the brown clouds were decreasing rice harvest in India⁶. He later led a UNEP-sponsored study⁷ that showed that such widespread atmospheric brown clouds were prevalent in other parts of the world. It also resulted in a major policy outcome, with the head of UNEP initiating a multi-national (South and East Asia; USA; Europe) program called: Atmospheric Brown Clouds.

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• Satheesh, S.K. and V. Ramanathan, (2000). Large Differences in Tropical Aerosol Forcing at the Top of the Atmosphere and Earth’s surface. Nature, 405: 60-63. Using INDOEX data to show the large solar heating by black carbon.
• Ramanathan, V., P. J. Crutzen, et al (2001). The Indian Ocean Experiment: An Integrated Assessment of the Climate Forcing and Effects of the Great Indo-Asian Haze. J. Geophysics. Res. Atmospheres,106, (D 22), 28371-28399.
• Ramanathan, V. and P. J. Crutzen, (2003). New Directions: Atmospheric Brown "Clouds".  Atmospheric Environment, 37, 4033-4035.
• Ramanathan, V., P. J. Crutzen, J. T. Kiehl and D. Rosenfeld, (2001). Aerosols, Climate, and The Hydrological Cycle. Science, 294, 2119-2124
• Ramanathan, V., C. Chung, D. Kim, T. Bettge, L. Buja, J. T. Kiehl, W. M. Washington, Q. Fu, D. R. Sikka, and M. Wild, (2005). Atmospheric Brown Clouds: Impacts on South Asian Climate and Hydrological Cycle. PNAS, Vol. 102, No. 15, 5326-5333. First study that used coupled Ocean-Atmosphere climate model to suggest that brown clouds are responsible foe the observed decrease in the monsoon rainfall.
• Auffhammer, M., V. Ramanathan, and J. R. Vincent (2006). Integrated model shows that atmospheric brown clouds and greenhouse gases have reduced rice harvests in India, PNAS, 10.1073/pnas.0609584104. A pioneering study that linked reduced rainfall and greenhouse warming to reduction in rice yield in India. Won the Cozzarelli prize.
• Ramanathan, V., F. Li, M.V. Ramana, P.S. Praveen, D. Kim, C.E. Corrigan, H. Nguyen (2007). Atmospheric Brown Clouds: Hemispherical and regional variations in long range transport, absorption, and radiative forcing.  Geophysics. Res., 112, D22S21, doi:10.1029/2006JD008124.
• Ramanathan, V. and G. Carmichael (2008). Global and regional climate changes due to black carbon. Nature Geoscience, 1, 221-227.

VI: Development of Drones (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) for Atmospheric Studies:  Beginning 2006, he and his team developed light weight unmanned aerial vehicles (50 kgs total weight) to track brown clouds from S. Asia, E. Asia and N. America.  For the first time these UAVs were stacked vertically to quantify the large atmospheric heating by black carbon at elevated layers of the atmosphere, which led him (along with his team) to conclude, for the first time, that black carbon was contributing to the retreat of the Himalayan-Tibetan glaciers¹. The group also demonstrated the use of light weight UAVs for making sophisticated measurements of turbulence fluxes^3,4, aerosol-climate interactions², and deposition of solar radiation fluxes in the atmosphere¹.

Ramanathan V., M.V. Ramana, G. Roberts, D. Kim, C.E. Corrigan, C.E. Chung & D. Winker (2007). Warming trends in Asia amplified by brown cloud solar absorption. Nature, 448, 575-578 doi:10.1038/nature06019.

Roberts, G.C., M.V. Ramana, C. Corrigan, D. Kim, and V. Ramanathan (2008). Simultaneous observations of aerosol– cloud–albedo interactions with three stacked unmanned aerial vehicles. PNAS, 105(21), 7370-7375.

Thomas, R.M., Lehman, K., Nguyen, Jackson, D.L., Wolfe, D., and Ramanathan, V. (2011) system, Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., 4, 5529-5568, 2011

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Wilcox, E., R. Thomas, P.S. Praveen, K. Pistone, F.A.-M. Bender and V. Ramanathan (2016), Black carbon solar absorption suppresses turbulence in the atmospheric boundary layer, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Early edition (October 4, 2016), doi:10.1073/pnas.1525746113.

VII. Short lived Climate Pollutants (SLCPs): His original studies that began in the 1970s on the greenhouse effect of halocarbons and other non-CO₂ greenhouse gases and the more recent studies on the large warming effect of black carbon, led him to conclude that mitigation of these  climate warming pollutants (black carbon, methane, ozone and HFCs) which stay in the atmosphere for a short time (hence the name SLCPs) will slow down global warming by as much as 50% by 2050^1,2 and reduce sea level rise by about a third by 2100³. In addition to publishing numerous original papers on the SLCPs, he teamed up with UCSD political scientists to write influential papers^4-6 in policy journals such as Foreign Affairs and Op-eds in New York Times, which got the attention of policy makers and leaders such as the Head of UNEP, Secy of State Hillary Clinton and environmental minister of Sweden. This proposal has now been adopted by UNEP and 30 countries including USA. UNEP formed the Climate and Clean Air coalition in 2012, and he is one of its science advisors.

Ramanathan, V. and Xu, Y. (2010). The Copenhagen Accord for limiting global warming: Criteria, constraints, and available avenues., Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., 107 (18) 8055-8062. The primary study that brought all four SLCPs in a quantitative study of the mitigation issue and shows how to limit global warming below 2⁰C using CO2 and SLCPs; shows global warming trend can be reduced by 0.6⁰C by 2050. The paper proposed the concept of managing the energy budget of the planet in addition to managing the carbon budget. The UNEP assessment published in 2011, basically confirmed the findings of this study.                                                  

Xu, Y., D. Zaelke, G. J. M. Velders, and V. Ramanathan (2013), The role of HFCs in mitigating 21st century climate change, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13(12), 6083–6089.                         

Hu, A., Y. Xu, C. Tebaldi, W. M. Washington, and V. Ramanathan (2013), Mitigation of short-lived climate pollutants slows sea-level rise Nature Climate Change 3(5), 1–5, doi:10.1038/nclimate1869.  

Wallack, J and Ramanathan, V. (2009) The Other Climate Changes, Why Black Carbon Also Matters, Foreign Affairs, Sept/Oct 2009, pp. 105-113. Develops the policy angle for the short-lived climate pollutants: Black Carbon and Ozone.                                                                           

Molina, M., D. Zaelke, K. M. Sarma, S.O. Andersen, V. Ramanathan, and D. Kaniaru (2009), Reducing abrupt climate change risk using the Montreal Protocol and other regulatory actions to complement cuts in CO2 emissions, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., doi/10.1073/pnas.0902568106, 6 pages. Develops the policy angle for HFCs, one of the 4 SLCPs.                                                  

Victor, D. G., C. F. Kennel, V. Ramanathan, (2012) The Climate Threat We Can Beat What It Is and How to Deal With It Foreign Affairs 91(3), 112-121. Policy piece on how to integrate SLCPs mitigation in the broader context of mitigation and adaptation.

VIII. Project Surya for clean cook stoves:  Ramanathan is now taking the knowledge on air pollution and its adverse effects on people and environment to actions in the field (www.projectsurya.org). He founded Project Surya which is mitigating black carbon and other climate warming emissions from solid biomass cooking in S. Asia and Kenya and is documenting their effects on public health and environment.  About 3 billion people around the world have no access to fossil fuels and use instead solid biomass (firewood; dung and crops residues) for

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cooking. About 3 million die every year by inhaling the cooking smoke. He has witnessed his grandmother suffering from the smoke inhalation during cooking in her native village in S. India. The black carbon from the cooking smoke is also the first to the second largest source of black carbon in many parts of Asia and Africa. He has teamed up with Mr. Hafeez Rehman of TERI (India) and his daughters Nithya Ramanathan (founder of Nexleaf, a wireless sensor NGO) and Tara Ramanathan in Surya to link the village women using improved stoves to the carbon credit market directly^1,2.                                                                                                                     

Rehman, I.H., T. Ahmed, P.S. Praveen, A. Kar, and V. Ramanathan (2011) Black carbon emissions from biomass and fossil fuels in rural India Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 7289–7299. First study from Project Surya to document indoor and outdoor black carbon concentrations from cook stoves and show how the two are linked.                                                                                   

T. Ramanathan, N. Ramanathan, Mohanty, I. H. Rehman, E. Graham and V. Ramanathan (2016), Wireless sensors linked to climate financing for globally affordable clean cooking, Nature Climate Change , Published online: October 31, 2016 [DOI:10.1038/NCLIMATE3141]. For the first time, wireless sensors were used to monitor use of clean cook stoves on an individual house basis; and t distribute usage-based carbon credits to rural women.