ARIES ST Radar (ASTRAD) at a mountain site (Nainital) in the central Himalayas

Nainital is ideally located in the central Himalayan region for studies on meteorology, dynamics, including stratosphere-troposphere exchange, long range transport of trace species and atmospheric waves. Globally, there are networks of radar available for studying the Stratosphere and Troposphere regions. In India, Himalayan region is void of such observational facility and the locations of ARIES, Nainital is best suited for this purpose. Nainital falls just to the north of the monsoon trough, essentially in the low level easterlies.This region is also dominated by western disturbances during winter and spring. Therefore, continuous monitoring of vertical structure in the wind is necessary to understand the total meteorology of this very interesting region for frontline atmospheric research.