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Doppler weather radars to boost forecasting

As part of efforts to improve weather forecast services, the Meteorological department is in the process of adding more Doppler weather radars to its network.

The department is also identifying gap areas such as strengthening of meteorological observations in mountainous regions and more automatic rain gauges, L.S. Rathore, director general of Indian Meteorology Department said on the sidelines of a four-day symposium on ‘Monsoons-Observations, Prediction and Simulation.’

Organised jointly by Indian Meteorological Society (IMS) and SRM University, the symposium was inaugurated on Friday. Mr. Rathore said the department was also considering venue-specific forecasting in urban areas following the success model of predicting weather for the Commonwealth Games a few years ago.

At present, information on various weather parameters for five days is being collated and disseminated to farmers at the district-level. “We plan to narrow it down to the block-level soon,” he added.

Earlier, Shailesh Nayak Secretary, Union Ministry of Earth Sciences, and IMS president, elaborated on the issues that need to be addressed. Reiterating the need to improve the accuracy in the prediction of monsoon rainfall, he said the ministry has taken steps to augment atmospheric and ocean observation. Satellite and ship-based observation has also been initiated.

SRM University’s vice chancellor M. Ponnavaiko also spoke during the symposium attended by about 300 delegates.

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