Pune: “A network of 50 doppler radars will soon monitor the Indian sky to address the severe climatic events. By March 2020, 11 doppler radars will be installed at the Himalayan region including J&K, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh,” said Secretary of Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), M Rajeevan.
He was speaking after the inauguration of the 3rd annual India Radar Meteorology at Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) here on Thursday.
Rajeevan said, “We have radar technology for last 60 years, but we need to have the operational radar meteorology for addressing severe weather phenomena like thunderstorms, cloud bursts, rainfall and others. Satellites and 27 existing doppler radars are monitoring these conditions 24x7.”
“The real time and functional radar system is the need of the time. With the help of the technology we can send a message to the local administration and national disaster management for preparedness and precautions to be taken to save loss of life and property,” said KJ Ramesh, Director General of Meteorology, Government of India.
“With high frequency radar technology, the alert time will come down to below one hour from four to six hours. It will cover nearly 50 to 70 per cent area under it,” Ramesh said. He added that from 27 existing radars, 10 more will be added and will be operational by year-end or by early next year.
“Likewise, the Indian Air Force will have 11 radars and one radar will monitor the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. We are also in touch with ISRO for developing radars to monitor the space and eastern coast of the country,” said Rajeevan.
“Similarly, 23 wind profiler radars will also be installed at each regional meteorological department in the country,. For monitoring the oceans we need satellites which again can be developed by ISRO. Students interested in doing research will be given more funds. We are inviting research proposals for Radar Meteorology and our data will be available to them free of cost,” he added.
Cloud seeding project
About the IITM Cloud Seeding CAIPEEX project, Rajeevan said the second phase of the project will be implemented this year and after a detailed analysis, the data will be published
