01 / SURFACE
Force-restore surface energy budget
Two-layer force-restore scheme for roof, wall, and road facets with explicit sensible, latent, and storage heat fluxes — resolved separately for sunlit and shaded surfaces inside the urban canyon.
1009.4 hPa1.2917° N · 103.8519° E15 m AMSLSINGAPORE
Dr. Utkarsh Prakash Bhautmage
Urban climate, boundary layer meteorology, and the physics of extreme weather.
Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore (NUS) on the joint CCRS–NUS–UKMO WSRP project. I build and evaluate multilayer urban canopy schemes inside next-generation NWP models — WRF, uSINGV, JULES, and LFRic — to improve forecasts of extreme rainfall, wind, and heat over tropical cities.
NUS · GEOGRF — 2023→
Investigative Focus
LAYER_00_ABOUT
- Affiliation
- NUS · Dept. of Geography
- Partners
- CCRS / MSS · UK Met Office
- Doctorate
- HKUST · 2020
I am a joint CCRS–NUS Research Fellow working with Prof. Matthias Roth at NUS and collaborators at the Centre for Climate Research Singapore (CCRS) and the UK Met Office (UKMO). My research sits at the interface of atmospheric dynamics and the built environment — land–atmosphere interactions, urban meteorology, boundary-layer processes, and numerical weather prediction at the hectometric scale.
During my PhD at the Division of Environment and Sustainability, at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), I worked in on-site collaboration with the United States Environment Protection Agency (EPA) at Research Triangle Park and the Institute for the Environment, at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill (USA), on developing the novel Urban Asymmetric Convective Model (UACM) — a computationally efficient multilayer urban scheme inside WRF. UACM's performance was analysed over Hong Kong and it was later operationalised for fog forecasting at IGI Airport, New Delhi, with IITM Pune. At NUS I now contribute to the development and application of the hectometric (100 m) uSINGV configuration of the UK Met Office Unified Model (UM), and the multilayer urban–JULES land surface model to be coupled with the UM and next generation LFRic.
Research Experience
LAYER_01_TIMELINEResearch Fellow — WSRP
National University of Singapore · Dept. of Geography
Joint CCRS–NUS–UKMO WSRP (Weather Science Research Program) project under CAWRAS (Climate and Weather Research Alliance Singapore). Developing and assessing the multilayer urban canopy JULES land surface model for extreme events in Singapore, with the UK Met Office team.
Research Fellow — RCA
National University of Singapore · Dept. of Geography
Joint CCRS–NUS RCA (Research Collaboration Agreement). Three-nested 1.5 km → 300 m → 100 m uSINGV configuration over Singapore. Extensive evaluation across afternoon-convergence and Sumatra Squall events; RAL2→RAL3 physics transition; 12-member ECMWF ensemble studies.
Research Associate
Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune
Implemented WRF-UACM over the Delhi urban region. Operationalised for winter-fog forecasting at Indira Gandhi International Airport on the WiFEX (Govt. of India) platform.
Postdoctoral Research Associate
University of Reading · Dept. of Meteorology
Testing of WRF-SUEWS model runs over the urbanised region of Colombo, Sri Lanka, with Prof. Sue Grimmond's group.
Overseas Researcher
HKUST · Division of Environment and Sustainability
Further development of multilayer UACM inside WRF — urban boundary-layer turbulence, wall heat exchange, vertical mixing, and high-resolution urban morphology integration.
Visiting PhD Researcher
US EPA, Research Triangle Park & UNC Chapel Hill, NC, USA
On-site PhD exchange research with Dr. Jonathan Pleim's group at the US EPA — coupling of asymmetric convective mixing (ACM2) with urban surface physics for the UACM scheme.
Education
LAYER_01b_EDUCATIONPh.D. in Atmospheric Sciences & Meteorology (Prgm: ESPM)
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Thesis: “Incorporation of the Urban Thermal and Moisture Components into the PX-Land Surface Model (LSM) within the Mesoscale Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model.” Supervisor: Prof. Jimmy Fung. Co-Supervisor: Prof. Alexis Lau. On-site PhD exchange with the US EPA, Research Triangle Park, NC and UNC Chapel Hill (2018).
M.Tech. in Environmental Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati
Thesis: “Numerical Simulation and Field Validation of Carbon Monoxide Dispersion in Road Tunnels” — a Computational Fluid Dynamics approach using the ANSYS FLUENT tool. Supervisor: Prof. Sharad Gokhale.
B.Tech. in Civil & Environmental Engineering
Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT), Nagpur
Undergraduate degree in civil engineering with an environmental specialisation. Final-year project on carbon-footprint accounting for transportation activities of an institutional campus — later published in J. Energy Environ. Carbon Credit (2015).
WRF-UACM Model Development
LAYER_02A_UACMPhD · HKUST · US EPA · UNC Chapel Hill
The Urban Asymmetric Convective Model inside WRF. 2022
UACM is a computationally efficient multilayer urban canopy and boundary-layer scheme I developed during my PhD at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, in collaboration with Dr. Jonathan Pleim's group at the US EPA and UNC Chapel Hill. It is designed to capture the asymmetric, intermittent turbulent transport that controls heat, moisture, and pollutant exchange between dense tropical cities and the overlying atmosphere — at a fraction of the cost of other existing multilayer urban models.
The scheme is fully integrated into the WRF-ARW framework and has been published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres (2022) and continues to address several urban meteorological applications worldwide.
WRF-ARWACM2 PBLForce-RestoreMultilayer CanopyFortran 90NCL
02 / CANOPY
Multilayer drag-and-mixing canyon
Momentum drag, turbulent length scales, and buoyancy production are computed at every model level intersecting the building array — replacing the single-layer bulk parameterisation with a vertically resolved canopy.
03 / PBL
Hybrid non-local + local mixing (ACM2)
UACM is coupled with the ACM2 boundary-layer scheme, blending non-local transilient mixing under convective conditions with local K-theory closure — extended to handle urban roughness sublayer effects.
04 / MOISTURE
Urban hydrology & anthropogenic heat
Adds prognostic surface moisture, intercepted water on roofs/roads, evaporation from urban vegetation, and diurnally varying anthropogenic heat sources for traffic and buildings.
05 / COUPLING
Two-way coupling inside WRF-ARW
Integrated as a land surface option in WRF v3.x and v4.x alongside Noah-MP, with feedbacks into the surface layer, radiation, and microphysics — validated against tower observations over Hong Kong, India, and US cities.
06 / EVALUATION
Offline & online evaluation
Offline testbed driven by EC tower forcing for single-column validation; online 1 km nested simulations evaluated against AWS networks, radiosondes, and remote-sensing retrievals for heat waves, sea breezes, and convective rainfall events.
UACM Schematics
FIG_SET_01 · Bhautmage et al. 2022
UACM Results — Hong Kong / PRD
FIG_SET_02 · Bhautmage et al. 2022
Current Modeling Research
LAYER_02_RESEARCHUACM / WRF
Urban Asymmetric Convective Model
A computationally efficient multilayer urban scheme developed inside WRF during my PhD at HKUST and with US EPA / UNC Chapel Hill. Couples force-restore surface temperatures, explicit sensible/latent/moisture fluxes, and a hybrid non-local + local PBL mixing framework with urban momentum drag.
Reference — Bhautmage et al. 2022
uSINGV / 100 m
100 m uSINGV Forecasting System
Joint CCRS–NUS work on the urban configuration of the UK Met Office Unified Model over Singapore — 1.5 km → 300 m → 100 m nesting, ESA WorldCover ancillaries, RAL3 physics, and ECMWF ensemble case studies of extreme rainfall and wind.
Reference — Bhautmage et al. 2025 — Part 1
Field & Compute — Visual Atlas
LAYER_03_ATLASA working visual reference for the phenomena the research targets — extreme rainfall, urban flooding, heatwaves, coastal wind extremes — and the compute that resolves them.
EVENT_01
Extreme Rainfall
Aerial view of a tropical megacity engulfed in a convective rain band — the kind of hectometric-scale event our 100 m forecasts target.
EVENT_02
Urban Flooding
Surface runoff overwhelms drainage when rainfall outpaces infiltration. Urban canopy schemes must capture this coupled response.
EVENT_03
Urban Heatwave
Asphalt and glass canyons store and re-radiate solar energy long after sunset — a signature of the urban heat island.
EVENT_04
Coastal Wind Extremes
Squall lines and Sumatra gusts: hectometric NWP captures gust fronts that mesoscale grids smear out.
COMPUTE_01
HPC Backbone
Singapore's NSCC and NUS HPC clusters run the nested uSINGV and WRF ensembles — thousands of cores per case study.
Publications & Recognition
LAYER_03_OUTPUTSelected Publications
- 2026Published
Parde, A. N., Koundal, K., Bhautmage, U., Wong, M. M. F., Oikonomou, C., & Haralambous, H. (2026). Role of High-Resolution Land Surface Representation in WRF Model for Forecasting Extreme Heatwave Conditions over Cyprus. Forecasting, 8(3), 42. https://doi.org/10.3390/forecast8030042
- 2025Under Review
Bhautmage, U., Chen, S., Roth, M., Patel, P., Furtado, K., & Zhang, H. (2025). Multi-Resolution Including Hectometric-Scale Modelling of Extreme Rainfall over a Tropical City: Part I – Evaluation Against Observations. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society. (Under Review)
- 2025Under Preparation
Bhautmage, U., Chen, S., Roth, M., Patel, P., Furtado, K., & Zhang, H. (2025). Multi-Resolution Including Hectometric-Scale Modelling of Extreme Rainfall over a Tropical City: Part II – Process Analysis Study. (Under Preparation)
- 2025Under Preparation
Kumar, R., Sanchez, C., Furtado, K., Bhautmage, U., Patel, P., Zhang, H., & Barker, D. (2025). Investigating the Role of Ocean-atmosphere-Wave Coupling in Regional Weather Prediction Over Singapore Using the cSINGV Model. (Under Preparation)
- 2025Under Review
Koundal, K., Parde, A. N., Bhautmage, U. P., Patel, P., Khamgaonkar, K., Wong, M. M. F., Pleim, J., Das, S. K., & Ghude, S. D. (2025). Urbanization Effects on Extreme Rainfall Over Mumbai: Sensitivity to Microphysics Schemes in WRF-UACM. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres. (Under Review)
- 2024Published
Bhautmage, U. P., Ghude, S. D., Parde, A. N., Kamath, H. G., Gokul Dhangar, N., Pleim, J., et al. (2024). Implementation of WRF-Urban Asymmetric Convective Model (UACM) for simulating urban fog over Delhi, India. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 129, e2024JD040760. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024JD040760
- 2024Published
Parde, A. N., Ghude, S. D., Dhangar, N. G., Bhautmage, U. P., Wagh, S., Lonkar, P., ... & Chen, F. (2024). Challenges in simulating prevailing fog types over urban region of Delhi. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 129(7), e2023JD039772. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023JD039772
- 2022Published
Bhautmage, U. P., Fung, J. C. H., Pleim, J., & Wong, M. M. F. (2022). Development and evaluation of a new urban parameterization in the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 127(16), e2021JD036338. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JD036338
- 2016Published
Bhautmage, U., & Gokhale, S. (2016). Effects of moving-vehicle wakes on pollutant dispersion inside a highway road tunnel. Environmental Pollution, 218, 783-793. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2016.08.002
- 2015Published
Bhautmage, U. P., Tembhurkar, A. R., Sable, A., Sinha, S., & Adarsh, S. (2015). Carbon Footprint for Transportation Activities of an Institutional Campus. J. Energy Environ. Carbon Credit, 5, 9-19.
Awards
2019
HKUST Research travel grant — 16th AOGS, Singapore
2018
HKUST Research travel grant — 10th ICUC, New York
2018
HKUST Overseas Research Award — PhD exchange at UNC Chapel Hill
Memberships
- Asia Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS)
- International Association of Urban Climate (IAUC)
Conferences
LAYER_04_CONFERENCES- 2026
23rd Annual Asia Oceanic Geosciences Society (AOGS), Japan (2-7 Aug 2026)
Bhautmage, U., Chen, S., Roth, M., Patel, P., Furtado, K., & Zhang, H. High-resolution Modelling of Urban Extreme Rainfall and the Underlying Physical Mechanisms Over Singapore. (Oral)
- 2025
22nd Annual Asia Oceanic Geosciences Society (AOGS), Marina Bay Sands, Singapore (27 Jul - 1 Aug 2025)
Bhautmage, U., Chen, S., Roth, M., Patel, P., Furtado, K., & Zhang, H. Modelling Extreme Rainfall in Singapore Weather Systems. (Oral)
- 2025
The 12th International Conference on Urban Climate (ICUC), Rotterdam, Netherlands (7-11 Jul 2025)
Bhautmage, U., Chen, S., Roth, M., Patel, P., Furtado, K., & Zhang, H. High-Resolution Modelling of Urban Extreme Rainfall in Singapore. (Oral)
- 2025
22nd Annual Asia Oceanic Geosciences Society (AOGS), Marina Bay Sands, Singapore (27 Jul - 1 Aug 2025)
Kumar, R., Sanchez, C., Furtado, K., Bhautmage, U., Patel, P., Zhang, H., & Barker, D. Investigating the Role of Ocean-atmosphere-Wave Coupling in Regional Weather Prediction Over Singapore Using the cSINGV Model. (Oral)
- 2025
The 12th International Conference on Urban Climate (ICUC), Rotterdam, Netherlands (7-11 Jul 2025)
Koundal, K., Parde, A. N., Bhautmage, U. P., Patel, P., Khamgaonkar, K., Wong, M. F., Pleim, J., Das, S. K., & Ghude, S. D. Simulation of Rainfall in Mumbai using Detailed Urban Morphology and the WRF-UACM Model. (Oral)
- 2024
Joint Annual R&D Workshop and 6th Momentum Partnership Convective Scale Workshop, Bureau of Meteorology (BoM), Melbourne, Victoria, Australia (9-13 Sep 2024)
Bhautmage, U. P., Chen, S., Roth, M., Patel, P., Furtado, K., & Zhang, H. Modelling of Extreme Rainfall in Singapore using 100-m uSINGV. (Oral)
- 2024
World Cities Summit (WCS), Science of Cities Symposium, SUNTEC Exhibition Center, Singapore (02 Jun 2024)
Bhautmage, U. P., Chen, S., Patel, P., Roth, M., Furtado, K., & Zhang, H. 100-m Resolution Urban-Scale Modelling of Extreme Rainfall in Singapore. (Poster)
- 2023
4th MoES-UK Met Office WCSSP India Annual Science Workshop, NCMRWF, Noida, India (27 Feb 2023)
Bhautmage, U. P., Ghude S. D., & Parde, A. N. Sensitivity of Fog Simulation over Delhi Region to the Latest LULC in WRF Model. (Oral)
- 2023
NSW Urban Modeling Project, Flame University, Pune, India (Jan 2023)
Bhautmage, U. P., & Ghude S. D. Implementation Plan for Ingesting Sentinel Updated LULC and Globus Urban Data for Fog Forecasting. (Oral)
- 2019
16th Annual Asia Oceanic Geosciences Society (AOGS), SUNTEC Exhibition Center, Singapore (Jul 2019)
Bhautmage, U. P., Fung, J. C. H., Pleim, J., Dy, C. Y., & Lau, A. K. H. Incorporation of the Urban Morphology and Governing Physics Including the Building Anthropogenic Heat Source in the Mesoscale NWP WRF Model's PX-LSM and ACM2-PBL Scheme and its Simulation over the PRD Region in Southern China. (Poster)
- 2018
17th Annual Community Modeling Analysis System (CMAS) Conference, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA (Oct 2018)
Bhautmage, U. P., Fung, J. C. H., Pleim, J., Dy, C. Y., Lau, A. K. H., & Hanna, A. Simulation of the Meteorological Conditions by Introducing the Urban Physics within the PX-LSM and ACM2-PBL Scheme in the WRF Model over the PRD Region in Southern China. (Oral)
- 2018
The 10th International Conference on Urban Climate (ICUC) & 14th Symposium on the Urban Environment (SUE) of the American Meteorological Society (AMS), New York City, USA (Aug 2018)
Bhautmage, U. P., Fung, J. C. H., Dy, C. Y., & Lau, A. K. H. Introduction of the Urban Physics and Morphology into the ACM2 PBL Scheme in the WRF Model to Simulate the Meteorological Conditions over the PRD region in Southern China. (Poster)
- 2017
5th International Symposium on Regional Air Quality Management in Rapidly Developing Economic Regions, Guangzhou, China (Nov 2017)
Bhautmage, U. P., & Fung, J. C. H. Evaluation of Mesoscale Numerical Weather Prediction WRF model's performance by Analyzing the Kinetic Energy Spectra Behavior. (Poster)
- 2017
5th International Symposium on Regional Air Quality Management in Rapidly Developing Economic Regions, Guangzhou, China (Nov 2017)
Bhautmage, U. P., Dy, C. Y., & Fung, J. C. H. Inclusion of the Urban Momentum and Thermal Drag Effect within the ACM2 PBL Scheme in the WRF Model to Obtain the Wind Profiles over Cities. (Poster)
Invited Talks & Seminars
LAYER_05_TALKS- 2025
Convection Working Group Meeting (UKMO), CCRS-NUS, Singapore (Mar 2025)
Bhautmage, U. P. Modeling Extreme Rainfall in Singapore's Weather Systems Using the uSINGV Model. (Online talk)
- 2025
Urban Working Group Meeting (UKMO), CCRS-NUS, Singapore (Feb 2025)
Bhautmage, U. P. Overview of Extreme Rainfall Modelling in Singapore with uSINGV Model. (Online talk)
- 2023
Centre for Climate Research Singapore (CCRS, Singapore) (Nov 2023)
Bhautmage, U. P. Development and Evaluation of a New Urban Parameterization in the WRF Model. (Seminar)
- 2023
National University of Singapore (NUS, Singapore) (Oct 2023)
Bhautmage, U. P. Urban Meteorological Modelling in Large Cities - Examples from Hong Kong & Delhi. (TEC Seminar)
- 2023
CDAC/MoES Urban Air Quality Forecasting Project - One Day Review Meeting, IITM-Pune, India (Mar 2023)
Bhautmage, U. P. Implementation of Globus Urban Data with WRF-UACM in Delhi Region.
Certificates & Training
LAYER_06_CERTIFICATES- 04 Aug 2026
Machine Learning for Earth System Modeling — Course 2: Architectures, Data, and Prediction
ECMWF
- 17 Apr 2026
Machine Learning for Earth System Modeling — Course 1: Foundations and New Frontiers
ECMWF
- 12 – 14 Jan 2026
3-day virtual workshop on the Model for Predictions Across Scales (MPAS)
NCAR
- 03 May 2024
CITI Program course on Responsible Conduct of Research – Advanced (NUS requirement)
National University of Singapore
- 20 Oct 2023
1-day introductory workshop on ASPIRE2A High Performance Computing (HPC)
National Supercomputing Centre (NSCC), Singapore
- 20 – 21 Oct 2020
6th International Symposium on Regional Air Quality Management in Rapidly Developing Economic Regions (6RAQM), 2 days
HKUST, Hong Kong
- 25 – 29 Jul 2016
3-day Aviation Nowcasting Training Workshop
Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)
- 7 – 10 Dec 2015
4-day Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) tutorial workshop, Nansha, Guangzhou, China
NCAR
- Dec 2015
Teaching Assistant Training Program
HKUST, Hong Kong
- 21 – 25 Sep 2015
5-day PALM seminar on Large Eddy Simulation (LES)
Chinese University of Hong Kong
- Apr 2015
International English Language Testing System (IELTS) — Overall band score 7.0
IELTS
- Jan 2013
MATLAB workshop — certificate of participation
Association of Civil Engineers (ACE), IIT Guwahati, India
- Apr 2011
AutoCAD 2D, 3D & Civil 3D certification
Authorized Autodesk training centre, ADCC Nagpur, India
Tooling & Methods
NWP & Models
- WRF (ARW)
- uSINGV / UM
- JULES LSM
- LFRic
- MPAS
- WRF-SUEWS
Computation
- Python
- Fortran 90/95
- Bash / HPC
- NCL
- GitHub / Git
- MATLAB
- C
Data & GIS
- NetCDF / GRIB
- ESA WorldCover
- ArcGIS / QGIS
- ANSYS Fluent
AI / ML
- Machine learning
- Deep learning
- scikit-learn
- TensorFlow / PyTorch
- XGBoost
Domains
- Urban meteorology
- Boundary-layer physics
- Extreme rainfall
- Fog forecasting