2025 News 2025: Following the monsoon winds: UMass Dartmouth’s role in a global ocean mission

UMassD team returns from international monsoon research expedition funded by $1M Office of Naval Research grant in collaboration with the Indian Ministry of Earth Sciences

UMass Dartmouth researchers are at the forefront of an international effort to understand and predict the South Asian monsoon, a climate system that affects the lives of over a billion people.  

A research team led by Professor Amit Tandon recently completed the third and final expedition as part of the ASTraL (Arabian Sea Transition Layer) program, the U.S. Office of Naval Research’s (ONR) contribution to a joint initiative called EKAMSAT (Enhancing Knowledge of the Arabian Sea Marine Environment through Science and Advanced Training). Financial support for Tandon’s team comes from a five-year ONR grant in the amount of $1,065,804. 

EKAMSAT is a U.S.–India collaboration launched in 2023 to explore air‑sea interactions in the northern Indian Ocean with the goal of improving monsoon forecasts.  

The 2023 pilot cruise in the Arabian Sea was followed by two expeditions across the Bay of Bengal in the summers of 2024 and 2025. Tandon and UMassD students were joined by scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the University of Washington, NASA, and others from around the world. Among the project’s collaborators were UMassD alumni Ersen’S Joseph '22, MS '23 and Filipe Pereira PhD '23, who now work at WHOI and Scripps, respectively.  

While this project focuses on the South Asian monsoon, the science has direct relevance here at home, too. Whether it’s a monsoon over India or a hurricane making landfall on the U.S. coast, both systems are fueled by the same ocean-atmosphere dynamics. Findings from the EKAMSAT expeditions will have implications for those developing better forecast models, predicting extreme weather events, and improving the safety of ships at sea.  

Some of those findings were published earlier this year in the Geophysical Research Letters by PhD candidate Siddhant Kerhalkar PhD ‘25.  

Science at sea 

Debarshi Sarkar, a PhD candidate in the Engineering and Applied Science program at UMass Dartmouth, participated in all three research cruises, spending weeks at a time at sea. “The 2025 cruise was particularly special,” he said. “The science team was smaller than on the previous cruises, which meant each scientist had greater responsibilities. This made it a tremendous learning experience. In addition, the connections I built with the other scientists are relationships that I believe will benefit me in my future.” 

During the recently completed final cruise in the Bay of Bengal, Sarkar and his fellow researchers sailed aboard the research vessel Thomas G. Thompson from Phuket, Thailand. Sarkar helped deploy gliders, buoys, and other instruments to collect data on ocean temperatures, salinity, currents, winds, and waves, while also calibrating NASA satellite measurements.  

Why UMassD/SMAST? 

“Not growing up near the ocean, it always felt special when my family and I visited the ocean once a year,” Sarkar said. "Over time, I became fascinated by how vast the ocean is and how complex its dynamics must be. During my undergraduate studies in mechanical engineering, I developed a strong interest in fluid mechanics, which drew me towards the physics of geophysical fluids.  

“While interning at the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), I came across several intriguing papers by Dr. Amit Tandon. Exploring his lab’s website and speaking with him over Zoom further fueled my excitement, especially about the prospect of long field research campaigns. That’s what led me to join UMass Dartmouth.” 

Safer seas and coasts

With faculty like Tandon leading projects of global significance and students like Sarkar and Kerhalkar gaining hands-on experience at sea, the university is preparing the next generation of ocean scientists while advancing knowledge that affects communities worldwide. 

 As extreme weather events, from Asian monsoons to Atlantic hurricanes, become increasingly unpredictable due to intensifying ocean heat, the deep insights gained by the Tandon Lab and its collaborators are informing better weather forecasts, safer navigation, and more resilient coastal communities.