Automatic weather stations and rain gauge systems will be introduced in all districts in the country within the next two years, said Ajit Tyagi, Director General of Meteorology, India Meteorological Department, New Delhi, on Thursday.
Speaking at a national-level seminar on ‘Doppler Radar and Weather Surveillance - 2010,' held on the National Institute of Ocean Development premises near here, Dr. Tyagi said at present the facility was available only in 450 districts in the country, which would be extended to all 645 districts.
Dr. Tyagi said an unusual weather prevailed last year. The Met Department, however, had warned that due to the unusual weather monsoon would be below normal. In any long range forecast certain uncertainties could be there.
Inaugurating the two-day seminar, Shailesh Nayak, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, said: “We have a fairly good coverage of coastal regions, which helped in predicting the arrival of cyclones.”
Radars planned
Soon the Ministry would install radars in mountain regions. To begin with, radar would be installed in the Himalayan region, as it was necessary to understand the weather pattern prevailing in this area also, Dr. Nayak said. The department was in the process of networking various weather radars. Once the process was completed standardisation and calibration of data collected from the radars would be taken up.
This issue would be discussed at the seminar. Interpreting the radar images was a crucial area. Those in the field should try to find out various meteorological phenomena, using the images, as the variety of outputs was also increasing, he said.
There were also certain limitations in the technology. Those in the field should find out the technological limitations and where it could fail apart from using the technology for predicting weather forecast, he said.
The department was in the process of installing a dozen new Doppler in east, west, south, north and central regions in the country.
In Tamil Nadu in addition to Chennai, a Doppler radar would be installed in Karaikal, he said.
Ocean observation was lacking and the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) was trying to bridge the gap by floating buoys and underwater drifting materials, said M.A. Atmanand, Director, NIOT, Chennai.
