Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) cautioned about the possibility of flooding in low lying coastal areas during the high tides on both the east and west coasts till October 22. Sustained strong onshore winds reaching upto 50 kmph, high near shore waves/swells and heavy rainfall and associated discharge can cause inconvenience to the public in these areas during the day time on the west coast at Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala.
On the East Coast, flooding is expected to occur during both day and night at West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Lakshadweep and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. It has advised fishermen on either coasts not to venture out during this period.
Third mock drill
Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre of INCOIS on Tuesday had also issued four test bulletins between 11.30 a.m. and 12.30 p.m. to simulate the third and last Tsunami mock drill this month. ‘Warnings’ of an ‘earthquake magnitude 9.0’ off Pakistan coast to test the preparedness was issued to all 25 Indian Ocean rim countries, 10 nations including India, Iran, Kenya, Madagascar, Maldives, Mauritius, Oman, Pakistan, Seychelles and United Arab Emirates actively participated to test their warning chains and standard operating procedures.
Exercise ‘IOWave20’ and other two scenarios were simulating earthquake magnitude 9.1 in Java Region, Indonesia on October 6, earthquake magnitude 9.2 in Andaman trench of India on October 13. West coast States/UTs of Kerala, Lakshadweep Islands, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra, and Gujarat took part in the exercise.
Indian Navy, Coast Guard, NDRF, nuclear power plants and ports and harbours also participated. The drill was limited to check communication channels instead of public evacuation because of COVID-19 pandemic. Results of the exercise will be sought through a questionnaire and analysed to rectify any shortcomings, said INCOIS director T. Srinivasa Kumar.
Buoy recovered
INCOIS, which had deployed a ‘Flux Buoy Mooring’ designed by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), US, in the Bay of Bengal on May 23 last year as part of the Ocean Mixing and Monsoon project under the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) National Monsoon Mission Program, has been recovered by the scientific vessel ORV Sagar Nidhi few days ago.
The sophisticated flux buoy and mooring system is heavily equipped with surface marine meteorological and sub-surface oceanographic sensors to observe the annual cycle of the surface, upper ocean temperature, salinity, and velocity structure at select depths to help in improving the ocean and atmospheric forecast models. It is first of its kind deployed in Indian Ocean and designed to acquire data for one year, said Mr. Kumar
