Abhay Devasthale

Main research interests

• Investigating the atmospheric Essential Climate Variables (ECVs) derived from satellite based observations for climate monitoring applications and process studies. To that end, I use satellite based climatologies (from both historical and advanced sensors) of some of the ECVs such as clouds, aerosols, water vapour, temperature etc to understand and learn about the complex water and energy cycle and interactions/feedbacks among its components.
• Implementing calibration and intercalibration of passive imagers for climate applications.
• Studies of pollution transport signals in the satellite observations and remote sensing of air quality.

I strongly believe that the satellite observations, in-situ measurements and climate models form the three corners of the healthy climate research triangle. Additionally, I think the broad knowledge of various disciplines is needed in climate research to gather “the bigger picture”.

Current Projects

• Establishment and assessment of a new WMO climate normal for clouds. New_Cloud_Norm (2022-26). Funded by the Swedish Research Council.
• Artificial Intelligence for enhanced representation of processes and extremes in Earth System Models External link.. AI4PEX (2024-28). Funded by EU Horizon 2023.
• Global biomass-burning aerosols and their aging processes: Insights from the modern era satellites. GlobAer-Biom (2024-26). Funded by the Swedish National Space Agency.
• Interplanetary assessment of dust aerosols on planets Mars and Earth using active remote sensing External link.. RS-DUST (2023-25). Funded by the Swedish National Space Agency.

Work experience and education timeline

Oct 2024 – present: International relations manager and Swedish delegate to EUMETSAT Policy Advisory Committee (PAC)

Oct 2022 – Sept 2025: Research leader, responsible for area "Climate monitoring and research using remote sensing"

Oct 2019: Associate Professor, Department of Meteorology at the Stockholm University (MISU), Sweden

2018 – 2020: Research leader, Satellites for model improvement, evaluation and process studies (SAT-MIP)

Jun 2008 – present : Scientist at the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI), Sweden

Aug 2005 – May 2008 : Post-doctoral fellow at the Meteorologisches Institut, University of Hamburg, Germany

May 2002 – July 2005 : PhD at the International Max Planck Research School for Earth System Modelling, Hamburg, Germany

Feb 2002 – Apr 2002 : Research Associate at the Center for Studies in Resources Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, India

Jun 2000 – Jan 2002 : Master of Remote Sensing at the Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, India

Jul 1998 – May 2000 : Worked as the Site Engineer in a private construction and consultancy firm, Pune, India

Jul 1994 – Jun 1998 : Bachelor of Civil Engineering, Pune University, India

Latest publications

More publications by Abhay Devasthale External link.