GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES
RAJYA SABHA
STARRED QUESTION No. *286
TO BE ANSWERED ON MONDAY, MARCH 18, 2013
MODERNIZATION OF INDIAN METEOROLOGICAL DEPARTMENT
*286. SHRIMATI JAYA BACHCHAN:
Will the Minister of EARTH SCIENCES be pleased to state:
(a) whether the current weather forecasting system in the country is equivalent to
International standards;
(b) whether Government has any plan to modernize the Indian Meteorological
Department (IMD);
(c) if so, the details thereof; and
(d) if not, the reasons therefor? |
| ANSWER |
ANSWER
MINISTER FOR MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND
MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES
(SHRI S. JAIPAL REDDY)
(a) to (d): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.
STATEMENT LAID ON THE TABLE OF THE RAJYA SABHA IN REPLY (a) to (d) TO STARRED
QUESTION NO. *286 REGARDING “MODERNIZATION OF INDIAN METEOROLOGICAL
DEPARTMENT” TO BE ANSWERED
ON MONDAY, MARCH 18, 2013
(a) Yes Sir. The weather forecasting systems in the country are comparable to most of
the countries in the world with respect to rainfall forecasting. Efforts are being made
to optimize the level of efficiency of the forecasting systems.
(b) Yes Sir. Earth System Science Organization (ESSO) - IMD has already implemented
Phase-I of the Modernization during 2007-12.
(c) Under the Phase-I of the modernization of ESSO - IMD, the following state-of-the-art
systems were commissioned:
• Observing systems such as Automatic Weather Stations (AWS), Automatic Rain Gauges
(ARG), Doppler Weather Radars (DWR) etc.
• Monitoring/early warning systems
• Analysis-visualization-product dissemination systems
• High Performance Computing (HPC)
• Communication/IT systems
• Real-time data assimilation-forecast systems etc.
Further, several manual operations have been fully automated. All the scientific staff
engaged earlier have been provided due training to develop appropriate skills for
customization of sector specific (like agriculture, aviation etc.) warning and forecasting
services.
In order to capture the characteristics of the severe weather in real time, 24X7
monitoring system comprising 675 Nos. of AWSs; 1024 Nos. of ARGs; 17 S and
C-Band DWRs have been commissioned at Chennai, Sriharikota, Machilipatnam,
Visakhapatnam, Kolkata, Mumbai, Bhuj, Hyderabad, Nagpur, Patiala, Delhi Palam,
Lucknow, Patna, Mohanbari, Agartala, Delhi Lodi Road and Jaipur. Only DWR at Bhopal
is under commissioning.
High Performance Computing (HPC) systems have been used to enhance the weather
forecasting capacities by assimilating all available global satellite data for forecast
generation. The global model that was earlier run at 50Km grid scale are now run at
22Km grid. The regional scale model run earlier at 27Km grid is replaced by 9Km and
3Km grid scale models. The accuracy of short range (up to 3-days in advance) monsoon
forecasts has improved from 50-60% to 70-95%. The skill of district level medium range
rainfall forecast (up to 5-7days in advance) has improved from 60-70% to 75-85% in
monsoon season and from 70-75% to 85% in non-monsoon seasons.
As far as the track and landfall forecasts of the tropical cyclones are concerned, the
performance evaluation of the updated forecast systems for the past 5-years, have
demonstrated enhanced forecast skill by about 18%. ESSO-IMD currently operates 5- Doppler Weather Radars (DWR) at Chennai, Machilipatnam, Visakhapatnam, Kolkata, Sriharikota
on the east coast along with a network of Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) and
Automatic Rain Gauges (ARG) for continuous weather surveillance over the Bay of Bengal.
ESSO-IMD has operationalized its location specific nowcasting (near real-time) weather
service for severe weather (Thunderstorms; heavy rainfall from lows/depressions over
the land) across the country. This service activity currently covers 117 urban centres on experimental basis under which nowcast of 3-6hour range is issued. Origin, evelopment/
movement of severe weather phenomena are regularly monitored through DWRs and
with all other available observing systems.
Integrated Agro-meteorological Advisory Service (AAS) is rendered now on twice-weekly
basis in collaboration with State Agricultural Universities (SAUs), institutions of Indian
Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), etc. District level weather forecast for next
5-days in respect of:
• Rainfall
• maximum temperature, minimum temperature,
• wind speed, wind direction,
• relative humidity and clouds
• weekly cumulative rainfall forecast
are provided. Further, crop specific advisories to help the farmers are issued and
widely disseminated. The AAS of ESSO-IMD has been successful in providing the crop
specific advisories to the farmers through different print/visual/Radio/ IT based
media including short message service (SMS) and Interactive Voice Response Service
(IVRS) facilitating for appropriate field level actions.
(d) Does not arise.
***** |
|
