The fifth Doppler Radar System on the East Coast is set to be housed at the newly built complex at the cyclone detection radar station of the Indian Meteorological Department here.
The new building to house the proposed indigenous Doppler Radar was inaugurated by A.V.M. Ajit Thyagi, DGM, IMD, New Delhi, at the cyclone detection centre on Friday. The building complex, spread over an area of 15,000 sq.ft, is slated to house the indigenously-designed Doppler Radar in over a year.
The complex constructed at a cost of Rs.4.5 crore is built to accommodate the 10-meter high, 15-tonnee, S-band Doppler Radar, which is under construction. A Doppler Radar is unique in its functioning with its capability to measure the velocity of the particles inside the weather system.
Speaking to The Hindu , Y.E.A.Raj, DGM, Regional Meteorological Centre, Chennai, said that the proposed 10-meter-high Doppler Radar, with a 24-hour rotation programme would transmit crucial data such as cloud density, amount of rainfall and thunderstorm, windstorm, formation and location of system, disturbance caused by cloud and rainfall to the ground unit. The information would be disseminated to the user who may log into the IMD portal.
According to S.M.Thambi, Executive Director, DWR (Doppler Weather Radar), Chennai, the Radar would provide quantitative inputs including the rate of rainfall. The systems inputs will be pronounced in its forecast including the shape and extension of the weather system, says Dr.Thambi.
The Doppler Weather Radar with PPI (Plant Position Indicator) envisages an auto-prediction system, with computerised monitoring of the movement of the eye of the cyclone and with data track-recorded and updated digitally at intervals of even up to less than half-an-hour. In the current conventional radar system, the tracking of the cyclone system is manual, where the centre of the cyclone and its movement are recorded with human intervention every hour.
The Doppler Radar has been developed by Bharat Electronics Limited at project cost of Rs.10 crore, with technology transfer from Indian Space Research Organisation.
It will replace the conventional cyclone detection radar currently under operation for over two decades at the cyclone detection radar station (CDR) of the IMD here.
The station with radar monitoring was set up in 1979, and the current analogous radar has been in operation since 1989.
The Indian Meteorological Department under the Ministry of Earth Sciences has six cyclone detection radars along the East Coast for the Bay of Bengal.
It includes one centre each at Kolkata, Paradip, Visakhapatnam, Masulipatnam, Karaikal and Chennai. Along the West coast, four cyclone detection radars are located in Kochi, Goa, Bombay, and Bhuj.
