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15th January 2025 (9 Topics)

Mission Mausam

Context

On January 15, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) marked 150 years of service. To celebrate this milestone, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched Mission Mausam, with a focus on improving India’s weather forecasting and disaster management capabilities. The mission aims to make India "weather-ready" and "climate-smart" as part of the country’s efforts to reduce the impact of natural disasters, which have been increasing due to climate change.

What is Mission Mausam?

  • Mission Mausam is a large-scale initiative designed to enhance the forecasting, modelling, and dissemination capabilities of India's meteorological services.
  • The mission will have a budget of Rs 2,000 crore for the first two years of implementation.
  • The key objective is to provide accurate and timely weather forecasts that will benefit crucial sectors such as agriculture, aviation, defence, disaster management, tourism, and health.
  • Key Goals of Mission Mausam:
    • Improving Weather Forecasting: The mission aims to enhance the accuracy of weather predictions, particularly for extreme events like heatwaves, heavy rainfall, and cyclones. Currently, the IMD’s forecasting accuracy for extreme heatwaves is about 97.99%, while heavy rainfall forecasts stand at around 80%. The mission seeks to close these gaps in prediction reliability, ensuring better preparedness across sectors.
    • Weather Modulation: Mission Mausam will also focus on “managing” specific weather events by enhancing or suppressing rainfall, hail, fog, and later, lightning strikes. This will be achieved through advanced research in cloud physics, which is crucial for weather modification. The goal is to control certain weather phenomena to minimize their negative impacts.
    • Research in Cloud Physics: One of the core areas of research under the mission is cloud physics. India is setting up a cutting-edge cloud chamber at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) in Pune. This facility will allow scientists to study the conditions required for cloud formation, which is vital for understanding and managing monsoon clouds. This is especially important given the unique nature of Indian monsoons and the country's dependency on them for agriculture.
  • Unlike basic cloud chambers found in other countries, India's cloud chamber will have convection properties, necessary for studying Indian monsoon clouds. This will be a first-of-its-kind facility in India, with only a few such chambers available worldwide.
  • Key Institutions Overseeing the Mission: The Mission Mausam initiative will be led by three key institutions funded by the Ministry of Earth Sciences:
    • India Meteorological Department (IMD)
    • Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune
    • National Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF), Noida

Fact Box:

What is IMD (India Meteorological Department)?

  • The India Meteorological Department (IMD), established in 1875, is the national meteorological agency of India under the Ministry of Earth Sciences.
  • It provides essential weather, climate, and disaster management services across the country.
  • IMD plays a pivotal role in safeguarding lives, supporting economic development, and advancing scientific research, particularly in meteorology, seismology, and allied fields.
  • Over its 150-year history, IMD has become a cornerstone of India’s disaster management, agriculture, aviation, and public safety infrastructure.
  • Key Achievements and Advancements
  • Pioneering Weather Observations: IMD replaced all mercury barometers with digital barometers at Class I observatories by 2023 in line with the UNEP Minamata Convention. The department deployed 200 Agro Automated Weather Stations (AGRO AWS) to enhance agro-meteorological services.
  • Crowdsourcing and Communication:
    • Launched a crowdsourcing web interface in 2021 to collect weather data and associated impacts such as rainfall, hail, dust storms, wind speed, thunderstorms, lightning, and fog.
    • The “Public Observation” mobile app, launched in January 2022, enables users to report weather observations in real-time.
  • Advances in Numerical Weather Prediction: Improved forecast accuracy by 40% from 2014 to 2023. It expanded the Doppler Weather Radar (DWR) network from 15 in 2014 to 39 in 2023, covering 35% more land area.
  • Technological Advancements: It developed the High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) model for nowcasting rainfall and reflectivity forecasts. It introduced the Mausamgram tool, an interactive and dynamic meteogram providing location-specific weather forecast information, on January 15, 2024.
  • The department has also developed Automatic Weather Stations, Doppler Weather Radars, and Impact-Based Forecasts under the "Make in India" initiative.

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