India will soon launch a dedicated weather forecast system for the Himalayas which will not only provide accurate forecast in the hills but also allow weathermen to improve their monsoon forecast.
In the next couple of years, scientists will set up a network of instruments comprising mainly automatic weather stations and Doppler weather radar, develop climate models and validate them before issuing the forecast for hill dwellers.
“The first two Doppler radar will be installed in Srinagar and Shimla. The radars will come along with a network of automatic weather stations, which will continuously collect basic weather data,” L S Rathore, director-general of Indian Meteorological Department told Deccan Herald.
The IMD under the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences tied up with Snow and Avalanche Studies Establishment in Chandigarh under the Defence Research and Development Organisation and five agriculture universities from Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand for building up the system, which would also be used in crop forecasting.
The government is also going to set up an Atmospheric Technology Institute for developing and calibrating instruments needed to set up the Himalayan forecasting system and other meteorological networks.
“The new institute will initially be housed in the campus of National Institute of Ocean Technology in Chennai. Once the incubation phase is over, the ATI would be moved to a new location,” said Shailesh Nayak, secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences.
The two projects received promise of adequate funding support from the government as the 2012-13 Budget allocated Rs 206 crore under the head of atmospheric observation system network, lion’s share of which will be used to fund these two projects.
Nayak said the government was discussing with Bharat Electronics Ltd for Doppler radar.
But in case, BEL could not deliver, the ministry will import. The project details would be finalised in another 2-3 weeks. But unlike the Doppler radar IMD is installing for cyclone warning system, the radar for the mountain would be either X-band or C-band radar. “S-band radar will not work in the Himalayas,” said Nayak, a former space scientist.
Since Himalayas have a profound impact on monsoon circulation, better understanding of the Himalayan weather would improve the monsoon forecast as well, Rathore said.