On September 11th, 2024, the Union Cabinet approved the launch of “Mission Mausam,” an ambitious initiative aimed at improving weather forecasting and climate management. This project has a budget of ₹2,000 crores and is set to run for five years. The goal is to make India a "Weather-ready" and "Climate-smart" nation, especially as climate change is leading to more unpredictable weather patterns.
How Will Mission Mausam Work?
Mission Mausam will focus on enhancing weather prediction capabilities through advanced technology. It plans to set up 70 Doppler Weather Radars, 60 Radio Sonde stations, 100 disdrometers, and 25 radiometers across the country by 2026. These are made to improve data collection and forecasting accuracy significantly.
A cloud-simulation chamber will be established at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) in Pune. This facility will allow scientists to study cloud behavior under rising temperatures and explore cloud seeding techniques. Dr. Ravichandran explained, “We will artificially create clouds inside a laboratory to understand which types of clouds can be seeded and how much seeding is needed.”
The mission will also leverage AI and machine learning to improve data assimilation and forecasting models. This will include an AI application called Mausam GPT too which will provide quick weather updates in text and audio formats, making information accessible to everyone, especially farmers.
What Is Cloud Seeding?
Cloud seeding is a method used to encourage precipitation by dispersing substances like silver iodide into clouds. This technique could help manage extreme weather events - like reducing flooding during heavy rains or increasing rainfall in drought-prone areas. Dr. M Ravichandran, Secretary of the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) explained, “If it’s raining continuously in Delhi, which could lead to flooding, can I suppress the rain? By seeding the clouds a little more, it may stop raining.” So, that’s the idea behind it.
“Eventually, we have to move from just weather forecasting to weather management,” he added. This means not only predicting the weather but also potentially controlling it through techniques like cloud seeding.
It will be implemented in phases
This first phase will install around 70 Doppler Weather Radars, 10 wind profilers, and 10 radiometers, along with high-performance computers to enhance data collection and forecasting accuracy. Currently, India has only 39 Doppler radars, while China has 200, making this expansion crucial for improving localized weather predictions.
Additionally, an Observing System Simulation Experiment (OSSE) will be conducted during this phase to determine the optimal number of observations needed for effective forecasting.
Phase Two will build on the groundwork laid in the first phase by introducing additional observational capabilities, including the deployment of satellites and aircraft. This phase is designed to further enhance the data collection process and improve the overall accuracy of weather predictions. The mission ultimately aims to increase the resolution of Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models from 12 kilometers to 6 kilometers, allowing for more precise forecasts at a local level, such as panchayat-level predictions.
Future Goals
Over the next five years, Mission Mausam’s goal is to:
- Improve short- to medium-range weather forecast accuracy by 5-10%
- Enhance air quality predictions in major cities by up to 10%
- Enable panchayat-level forecasts with a lead time of 10-15 days
- Increase the frequency of nowcasting from every three hours to every hour
It’s much-needed
India faces significant challenges due to climate change, including severe floods and droughts. The Ministry of Earth Sciences highlights that current weather prediction models are insufficient for accurately forecasting localized weather events because they operate at a resolution of 12 kilometers. The mission will hopefully improve this resolution to six kilometers for better-localized forecasts.
Dr. Mritunjay Mohapatra, Director General of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), noted that “the chaotic effects of climate change are leading to more extreme events such as cloudbursts and thunderstorms.”
Dr. Ravichandran emphasized that no weather system in the country will go undetected under this mission and that “We aim to artificially enhance or suppress rain within the next five years.”
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It’ll be interesting to see how we can manually control when to start and stop rains.
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