NEW DELHI :
INDIA will add around 70 new Doppler
radars under Mission Mausam with the
aim of predicting weather up to the panchayat level and improving short- to
medium-range forecast accuracy by five
to 10 per cent, officials said.
At a press conference, M Ravichandran,
Secretary of the Union Ministry of Earth
Sciences, said the five-year mission would
be implemented in two phases.
The first phase, running until March
2026, will focus on expanding the observation network, including the addition
of around 70 Doppler radars and 10 wind
profilers.
The Union Cabinet approved
the mission on Wednesday, allocating Rs
2,000 crore for the first phase, which also
includes setting up of a “cloud chamber”
at the Pune-based Indian Institute of
Tropical Meteorology to study physical
processes within clouds.“During the first
phase, 60 to 70 new radars will be installed
in 18 months.We already have 39 Doppler
radars functioning. Ten wind profilers
and 10 radio metres will also be set up,”
Ravichandran said.
“We will also conduct an Observing
System Simulation Experiment (OSSE) in
the first phase, which will help determine the number of observations needed moving forward,” he said.