APARC General Assembly 2026 Opens at IITM in Pune

The General Assembly 2026 of Atmospheric Processes and their Role in Climate (APARC) was inaugurated at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune. India is hosting this gathering for the first time, which the Ministry of Earth Sciences described as a historic moment, since the assembly is held only once every four years.

Who inaugurated it

The chief guest was Dr Srinivasa Kumar Tummala, Secretary in the Ministry of Earth Sciences, who joined online. The guest of honour was Ko Barrett, Deputy Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization, also online. Among those present were Dr Hindumathi Palanisamy of the World Climate Research Programme at the WMO, APARC Co-chair Dr Stephanie Evan of the CNRS laboratory on the atmosphere and cyclones in Reunion Island, France, Dr Hella Garny of the DLR Institute of Atmospheric Physics in Germany, IITM Director Dr Suryachandra Rao, and Dr Suvarna Fadnavis, who chairs the Scientific Organizing Committee and heads the Centre for Climate Change Research at IITM.

Size of the assembly

• The assembly runs for five days, from 12 to 16 October 2026
• More than 550 participants are taking part from Europe, the Americas, South Asia, South East Asia and Australia
• Of these, 380 are attending in person, made up of 250 Indian and 130 foreign delegates, while about 180 researchers have joined online
• The scientific programme has 67 oral presentations, including nine keynote talks, and more than 400 poster presentations
• Over 120 students and 150 early career researchers are attending

What is being discussed

Dr Suryachandra Rao delivered the opening keynote on modelling the monsoon and on ways to close the gap between how far the monsoon can be predicted in principle and how well it is actually forecast. The assembly is organised around six core themes: a high-resolution picture of the climate system; atmospheric composition and how it varies as the climate changes; the dynamical and thermodynamic fingerprints of climate forcing; circulation, composition and extreme events in the tropics; climate prediction from the subseasonal to the decadal scale; and APARC science with and for society. Artificial intelligence and machine learning in climate modelling, atmospheric chemistry and the forecasting of extreme events are the emerging frontiers getting special attention.

About APARC and WCRP

APARC is a core project of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) and studies the atmospheric drivers and processes behind weather patterns and the working of the global climate. Its General Assembly serves as a worldwide platform to find gaps in research, build scientific partnerships and draw up workable roadmaps on pressing climate problems. For aspirants the points to hold are the host institute, the city, the parent programme, the four-year cycle and the fact that India is leading the hosting for the first time.