Name Mausumi Dikpati | Role Scientist | |
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Mausumi dikpati ncar hao simulating solar cycles
Mausumi Dikpati is a scientist at the High Altitude Observatory operated by the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
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Personal life
Dikpati is the eldest daughter of Niva Dikpati and Sakti Sadhan Dikpati. She was born at Ranaghat, West Bengal in India. She has two younger siblings and is married to Dr. Siddhartha Ghosh.
Career
In March 2006, she was the first person to predict the strength and timing of the next solar cycle based on simulations of the physics of the solar interior. During 2006-2007 Mausumi Dikpati issued three predictions for solar cycle 24 -- (i) a delayed onset of solar cycle 24 which would start in late 2008 instead of 2006, (ii) a strong solar cycle 24 whose peak would be 30%-50% stronger than the previous cycle ('Cycle 23'), and (iii) the solar cycle in southern hemisphere would be stronger than that in the northern hemisphere of the Sun. Two of these three predictions, (i) and (iii) have been validated. Her research paper explaining the cause of delayed onset of solar cycle 24 was one of the top 100 discoveries in the Discover Magazine Currently she is intensely involved in improving her solar dynamo model for building a more accurate dynamo-based solar cycle prediction tool which can assimilate solar magnetic fields and flow data in a sophisticated way as used in oceanic and atmospheric predictions, such as El Nino.