What is 'Mission Mausam,' ₹2,000cr initiative for accurate weather predictions?
The Indian government has launched an ambitious initiative, "Mission Mausam," with the goal of improving the country's ability to predict and respond to extreme weather events. The project, approved by the Union Cabinet, has been allocated a budget of ₹2,000 crore for its initial phase which will run until March 2026. This mission is a response to the challenges posed by climate change impacts and complex atmospheric processes.
Addressing challenges in tropical weather forecasting
The Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) has highlighted the difficulties in tropical weather forecasting due to complex atmospheric processes and limitations in existing observation and model resolution. The ministry noted that observational data is relatively sparse, both temporally and spatially. Additionally, the horizontal resolution of Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models, currently at 12km, makes it challenging to accurately forecast small-scale weather events in the country.
Climate change exacerbates weather unpredictability
Climate change is contributing to increased atmospheric chaos, leading to isolated heavy rainfall and localized droughts. These conditions create simultaneous challenges of drought and flooding. The ministry emphasized that understanding these complex patterns requires understanding of physical processes occurring within and outside clouds, on the surface, in the upper atmosphere, over oceans and in polar regions.
'Mission Mausam' to be implemented in 2 phases
MoES Secretary M. Ravichandran revealed that "Mission Mausam" will be executed in two phases over five years. The first phase, running until March 2026, will focus on expanding the observation network by adding around 70 Doppler radars, high-performance computers, and setting up 10 wind profilers and 10 radiometers. The second phase will concentrate on enhancing observational capabilities through the addition of satellites and aircraft.
'Mission Mausam' aims to improve weather forecast accuracy
"Mission Mausam" aims to improve short to medium range weather forecast accuracy by 5-10% and enhance air quality prediction in major metro cities by up to 10%. The mission also plans to enable weather prediction up to panchayat level with a lead time of 10-15 days, and improve nowcast frequency from three hours to one hour. A "cloud chamber" will be established at Indian Institute of Meteorology in Pune within the next one and a half years under this mission.
