Announcing this at the user’s meet on weather services on Monday, Ajit Tyagi, Director General of Meteorology said they had already installed DWRs in some areas of coastal Karnataka and in the second phase, Bangalore and Mangalore will be included.
The DWR has the capability to track continuously and predict fast-evolving weather systems such as thunderstorms, cyclones and cloudbursts.
“As many of 55 DWRs are planned, of which 20 have been installed already. Shortly, all the DWRs will be set up. They will be thoroughly networked for accurate reading,” said Tyagi.
DWRs pick up more accurate information about the turbulence and wind speed in the atmosphere, before a cyclone or heavy shower and can detect thunderstorms that may bring heavy rain, strong wind and tornados.
IMD, in collaboration with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), had developed DWR and is currently working on developing certain key instruments for different satellites. IMD is also collaborating with ISRO for its space launches, he added.
Since the 1999 Orissa cyclone disaster, IMD has been making efforts to revamp its observation network in the country. DWR is more advanced than the conventional radar which is presently used by IMD at its different centres.