New Delhi: A framework to share climate data with other countries, a platform for visualising weather forecasts and climate models in an integrated fashion, and a portal and an app for better access to climate information. These were the new initiatives that the India Meteorological Department (IMD) launched Monday as it celebrated 150 years of service.
The country’s weather watchers marked the occasion at an event at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, which Vice President Dhankhar and Minister of Earth Sciences Kiren Rijiju — under whose ministry the IMD falls — attended.
The IMD also has its own theme song, written by poet Gajendra Solank, to mark the occasion.
“While the country was fighting the First War of Independence, others were fighting another war — to protect life and property from natural disasters. They became the first officers of the India Meteorological Department in 1875,” Dr Mrityunjay Mohapatra, the IMD’s director general, said during his welcome address.
Both Rijiju and Mohapatra spoke about the IMD’s contribution toward weather forecasting, disaster management, and climate change data. A large part of the event focussed on climate change services, such as the IMD’s ozone monitoring service and flood meteorological services, to establish databases and build resilience against climate-related disasters.
While discussing the unequal effects of climate change on lower- and middle-income countries, Rijiju lauded the IMD for becoming a ‘world-class’ meteorological service.
“Because of the efforts of the IMD, our society is capable of mitigation action against climate change and extreme weather events,” he said.
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Four new initiatives of IMD
Dhankhar inaugurated IMD’s four new initiatives to increase climate forecasting and make weather data more accessible. One of the main initiatives was the National Framework for Climate Services, which is India’s version of the Global Framework for Climate Services adopted by the UN in 2012.
According to the United Nations, the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS) is “designed to mainstream climate science into decision-making at all levels and help ensure that every country and every climate-sensitive sector of society is well equipped to access and apply the relevant climate information”.
It was adopted at the World Climate Conference-3 (WCC-3) from 31 August to 4 September 2009.
According to Rijiju, the NFCS is a portal enabling the exchange of climate information between departments such as agriculture, health, energy, and water and the IMD. It will allow the IMD to collaboratively work with other government departments and international agencies to share data and improve their work on climate change, climate modelling, and prediction, he said.
It will also facilitate this exchange with international and regional partners, acting as “soft diplomacy” and establishing the India Meteorological Department as a “regional leader” in climate information, Dhankhar added in his speech.
“When we observe the climate more, we can model it more accurately, and only when we model it accurately are we close to predicting its behaviour,” Rijiju said in his address, adding that the NFCS brings together all components impacted by climate change including agriculture, health, water, energy, and disaster management.
Another initiative launched by the IMD is the Weather Analysis and Forecast Enabling System (WAFES) Decision Support System — a platform for visualising weather forecasts and climate models of the IMD in an integrated manner. Apart from these meteorological models, the WAFES DSS also provides risk warning of extreme weather events and their socio-economic impact across the country’s regions.
Besides these, the IMD launched initiatives aimed at increasing the accessibility of weather information for citizens, in line with their “Har Har Mausam, Har Ghar Mausam” slogan. One such initiative is the Panchayat Mausam Seva, a portal made in collaboration with the Ministry of Panchayat Raj to help farmers get access to accurate weather predictions. According to Mohapatra, it allows weather information to be distributed through the gram panchayat system to farmers.
The IMD also released its new ‘Mausam’ app at the event. The app provides information on weather forecasts and has everything from the sunrise and sunset timings to the risk of extreme weather events at the user’s location.
“This is an age of science, and we must yield to it. The IMD’s new initiatives will make everyone a beneficiary of its efforts, from a farmer tending to his crops to a soldier on the front,” said Dhankhar in his address.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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