Setting Up of AWSS and ARGs

Department of Agriculture & Cooperation under the Ministry of Agriculture has constituted the committee for preparation of guidelines for setting up Automatic Weather Stations (AWSs) and Automatic Rain Gauge (ARGs) across the country where DGM, Earth System Science Organization – India Meteorological Department (ESSO - IMD) is also a member. The draft report submitted by the Committee is circulated for widely for comments and suggestions that dealt with following aspects:

i) AWS equipment standards

ii) AWS installation standards & maintenance standards and

iii) 3rd party accreditation and data certification services

Not yet as the envisaged wider consultation is still continuing.

A Brainstorming meeting was held in Pune on 03rd September, 2012 by the (ESSO - IMD) to develop a national consortium involving all the concerned organizations to integrate the existing AWS/ARG networks and install new ones with the required sensors, maintenance, reception of quality controlled and uninterrupted data, data sharing mechanism, etc. as per the common standards. Based on the suggestions of this meeting and based on the on-going consultations, another brainstorming meeting is planned to be organized in June 2013 to finalize the said report.

Union Minister of Science & Technology and Earth Sciences Shri S.Jaipal Reddy gave this information in reply to a written question in the Rajya Sabha today.

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