Question : IMD Data

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES
LOK SABHA UN-STARRED QUESTION No. 3296
TO BE ANSWERED ON MARCH 13, 2020
IMD DATA

3296. SHRI G.M. Siddeshwar :

Will the Minister of EARTH SCIENCES be pleased to state:
(a) whether the India Meteorological Department (IMD) provides block
wise data, if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor;
(b) whether the IMD has adequate number of radars for collecting precipitation data at the wider and vertical levels in the atmosphere and if so, the details thereof;
(c) whether the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting had asked the Ministry of Earth Sciences for 20 more scientists and if so, whether they have been provided and if not, the reasons therefor; and
(d) whether the Centre of Excellence in Climate Modelling has been launched and if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor?

ANSWER
MINISTER FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
AND EARTH SCIENCES
(Dr. HARSH VARDHAN)
(a) Yes Sir. IMD has already covered 637districts in the country for providing Agromet Advisories and is now venturing into implementation of block level weather forecast and Agromet Advisories in collaboration with Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) under ICAR network. District Agromet Units (DAMUs) are being established in Krishi Vikas Kendra (KVKs) under ICAR network. Implementation of block level Agromet Advisory Service would address the micro-level variation in weather and climate and hence more numbers of farmers will be benefitted.
Till the end of February 2020,123 DAMUs and 100 Agrometeorological Field Units (AMFUs) have started generating experimental Block level Agromet Advisories covering a total number of 2127 blocks (1227 blocks by 100 AMFUs & 900 blocks by 123 DAMUs).

(b) Yes Sir.IMD is presently having a network of 23 Doppler Weather Radars (DWRS) and sharing radar data with two Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) DWRs at Cherrapunji and Thiruvananthapuram as appended in Annexure-I&Annexure-II (pictorial diagram of area coverage). In order to fill the gap in its Network, additional 29 DWRs were approved and under process of finalization/installation.
(c) National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting(NCMRWF) had asked for 20 scientists under Monsoon Mission Programme of MoES, out of which 15 were sanctioned during 2017-18.NCMRWF has recruited 7 scientists in 2019 under Monsoon Mission and recruitment of another 8 scientists (Scientist-B) is under process.In addition to this NCMRWF has alsorecruited 8 scientists in 2019.
(d)Yes Sir. Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Govt. of India has established the Centre for Climate Change Research (CCCR) at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, since January 2009 to study the impact of climate change in the country. The centre is dedicated to carry out research on global and regional climate change with a particular focus on the Indian climate and the monsoons. CCCR has started the coupled climate modelling, and based on the efforts, an Earth System Model (ESM) has been developed which is contributing to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 6thAssessment (IPCC-AR6). Currently efforts are ongoing to generate the future climate change scenarios. To better understand the regional climate change issues, CCCR has also undertaken the Coordinated Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX)-South Asia Program.
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