Ranchi, May 23: The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) would soon set up a Doppler radar that would enable digital imaging of the eastern region’s cloud cover enabling more accurate weather forecasting over a radius of 500km.
The equipment, which would cost about Rs 15 crore, would be set up either in Ranchi or Patna.
According to sources in the Met office, once installed, the gadget would help in digital mapping of the cloud cover in Jharkhand, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and parts of Bengal and Orissa.
As the high-power radar would be able to “read” the nature, intensity and height of the cloud, it would also help in generating area specific weather predictions for the entire region. “The Doppler radar would be set up either in Ranchi or Patna by the end of 2009,” L.R. Meena, deputy general manager of regional meteorological centre in Calcutta, told The Telegraph today.
Here to attend a meet on meteorology organised by the Ranchi meteorological centre at Birsa Agriculture University (BAU), Meena said IMD had planned to set up as many as 55 similar radars in the country to improve mechanised weather study and forecasting.
At present, the Doppler radars are stationed in Calcutta, Visakhapatnam, Chennai and Sriharikota.
The IMD would also start sending out district-wise special weather forecasts for state’s farmers five days in advance from June 1. This service, she added, would help farmers plan their crops well in time.
Among the others who took part in the meet were state agriculture minister Nalin Soren, BAU vice-chancellor N.N. Singh, director of meteorological centre (Ranchi) G.K. Mohanty and a weather scientist from IMD, N. Chattopadhyay.
At the meet, weather scientists primarily discussed the “erratic” nature of global weather and even warned that the trend would perhaps continue to increase in the coming years.
Cyclones would be more intense and the monsoons would be more erratic. And as India was in the temperate zone, it would bear the direct impact of global warming, compared to countries in Europe and America. “There would be more hot days, hot nights and heat waves,” said Meena.
This weather pattern, coupled with the rise in global temperatures, the visiting scientists warned, would have an adverse impact on crops.
