Chandana Mitra
Department of Geosciences
Professor and Earth System Science PhD Program Director
Department of Geosciences
Professor and Earth System Science PhD Program Director
Research Areas: Climatology, urbanization and growth models, urban climate, urban sustainability, climate change, South east US, South Asia urbanization and impacts, GIS and remote sensing, climate modeling
Office: 2046D Haley Center
Address:
2050 Beard Eaves Coliseum
Auburn, AL 36849
Phone: (334) 844-4229
Fax: (334) 844-4295
Email: czm0033@auburn.edu
Education
Ph.D., Geography, University of Georgia
2011
M.A., Geography, University of Calcutta
1994
B.A., Geography, University of Calcutta
1992
Professional Employment
Associate Professor, Auburn University
2017 - Present
Assistant Professor, Auburn University
2011 - 2017
Research and Teaching Interests
Chandana Mitra’s teaching responsibilities largely reflect her interests in urban growth, GIS and climate science. The courses she offers include GIS, climatology, physical geography, urban geography and Asia. Dr. Mitra’s primary research interests are in the field of urban climate, urban land cover, urban land use change, growth dynamics in developing countries, urban growth models, mesoscale weather processes and modeling, climate change, satellite remote sensing and GIS. She has extensively used GIS/remote sensing techniques and urban growth models to better understand the dynamics of human - environmental interactions. She and her students are using the WRF mesoscale climate model to discern land-atmosphere interactions and impacts. Dr. Mitra's present research projects are related to quantifying land use, land cover change, converting digital numbers to degree temperatures to delineate urban heat island magnitude and estimating evapotranspiration for agricultural and urban areas. Her current research projects focus on South Asian countries and the US [Please click on the ‘Research’ link on the left side of the page]. Another of her present research initiatives is to create 'urban sustainability maps'. These maps will potentially help global cities make decisions and policies towards a more sustainable future based on their individual topography, structure, climate and several other inputs. In future she wants to expand her research to other parts of the world, along with environmental planning, plan for greener cities, and examine different ways of mitigating urban heat islands. Mitra is passionate about Climate change communication to the masses. She believes the first step to climate change mitigation is educating the general population and them taking ownership and responsibilities to mitigate the risks. She is a member of 'Climate Voices - Science Speakers Network', a new climate communications initiative of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and the United Nations Foundation. Her academic research always ties in with dissemination of knowledge whether it is through K 12 education or using mass media to communicate or simply through her class lectures.
Selected Publications
- González, J. E., P. Ramamurthy, R. Bornstein, F. Chen, E. Bou-Zeid, M. Ghandehari, J. Luvall, C. Mitra, and D. Niyogi. 2021. Urban climate and resiliency: A synthesis report of state of the art and future research directions. Urban Climate 38: 100858.
- Dong, L., Mitra, C., Greer, S., & Burt, E. 2018. The Dynamical Linkage of Atmospheric Blocking to Drought, Heatwave and Urban Heat Island in Southeastern US: A Multi-Scale Case Study. Atmosphere, 9(1), 33.
- *Li, X., Mitra, C., Dong, L., Yang, Q. 2017. Understanding land use change impacts on microclimate using Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model, Physics and Chemistry of the Earth. doi: 10.1016/j.pce.2017.01.017
- Mitra, C. and Shepherd, J. M. 2016. Urban Precipitation: A global perspective. Pp. 152-168. The Routledge Handbook of Urbanization and Global Environmental Change. Eds. Karen C. Seto, William D. Solecki, and Corrie A. Griffith. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN: 978-0-41573226-0
- Mitra, C., M. Shepherd and T. Jordan, 2012. “On the relationship between the pre-monsoonal rainfall climatology and urban land cover dynamics in Kolkata city, India”. International Journal of Climatology (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/joc.2366/full, DOI: 10.1002/joc.2366)
*student contribution
Last updated: 10/01/2024