Smart systems in districts to forecast weather

Work on automated observatories will begin soon, says IMD official

The IMD Bangalore is all set for a makeover installing automatic weather stations in every district in the State and build a faster network of stations to help comprehend the forecast accurately. It is also developing a high-powered computation system at its premises in Bangalore which will help absorb the continuous data fed from the observatories across the State. These automatic observatories will replace the current manual observatory that exists in all the districts.

Each of the automatic weather stations comprises of a weather sensor fixed to a 10 meter tower. These towers would be linked to IMD through satellite communication network using solar batteries.

B Puttanna, in-charge director of IMD Bangalore told Deccan Herald that the new computation system and the automatic observatories across the State will help the IMD to determine the weather conditions for the whole State more comprehensively than ever. The farmers bulletin on predictions of rain, relative humidity, temperature, cyclonic clouds can become more reliable. “The modernisation is part of the Central Government’s nationwide endeavour to make the world’s oldest meteorology department more technically advanced.

The Government has allocated Rs 900 crore for the project. Some of the neighbouring states have begun the work. We will begin the work once land is identified for the tower in the districts. The work will be completed in a phased manner across the State,” he said.

Doppler monitoring

The Indian Meteorological Department is developing a Doppler Weather Monitoring System in Bangalore and Mangalore. It can help predict the weather condition changes in the 500 kilometre range surrounding the two cities. The system will be put in place soon to measure the intensity of the rainfall, thickness of cloud or a cyclone, precipitation, the low pressure and high pressure areas. It will provide for a long range accuracy and help navigation and air traffic purposes too.