Due to climate change, sometimes there are floods in the country due to heavy rains, and sometimes there is a situation of drought in some areas due to lack of rain. The central government has launched Mission Mausam to deal with such extreme weather events. With this, along with making accurate predictions about the weather, expertise will also be developed to bring rain and stop rain.
Scientists will also be able to prevent incidents
Under Mission Mausam, the scientists of the country will also be able to prevent incidents of lightning and cloudburst. The government has allocated Rs 2,000 crore for the first phase of Mission Mausam. The first phase will run till March 2026. Under this, 70 radars, high performance computers, 10 wind profilers and 10 radiometers will be installed. In the second phase, the number of satellites and aircraft will be increased to increase the monitoring capacity.
Clouds will be artificially created in the lab
M Ravichandran, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, said that under the mission, a cloud chamber will be set up at the Indian Institute of Meteorology, Pune to study the changes taking place in clouds in the context of rising temperatures. He said that we will artificially create clouds in the lab and conduct experiments. This will help scientists understand these processes better and they will know which kind of clouds can be seeded to make it rain?
What kind of material should be used for seeding and how much seeding is needed to increase or stop rain? Seeding is a process in which rain is caused by adding a special material to the clouds.
Ravichandran said that our goal is to artificially increase and control rain in the next five years. After this, we will focus on other weather events like lightning.
Continuous rain in Delhi can cause floods
When asked about the need for weather management, Ravichandran said that continuous rain in Delhi can cause floods. In such a situation, if we have the technology to stop rain, then we can stop the rain by seeding more in the clouds. Similarly, by making rain in drought-affected areas, we can save people from drought.
Incidences of heavy rain and drought are increasing in the country
According to the Ministry of Earth Sciences, forecasting about the weather is challenging due to the complexity of atmospheric processes and the limitations of current observation and model resolution. At the same time, due to climate change, incidents of heavy rain and drought are increasing at the local level.
Cloudburst, lightning and storms are such weather-related events about which there is very little understanding in India. To deal with this situation, research is needed on every weather-related activity happening inside and outside the clouds, on the surface, in the upper atmosphere, above the oceans and in the polar regions.
India’s monitoring capacity
The Indian Meteorological Department has so far installed 39 Doppler radars across the country and there is no wind profiler. At the same time, China has 260 radars and 128 wind profilers. There are 160 radars and 100 wind profilers in the US. ( PLC & GT )
