Govt moots Monsoon mission to have improved prediction of rainfall

For an improved prediction of monsoon rainfall on extended range to seasonal time scale, the Centre has embarked upon Monsoon mission to build a state-of-the-art model.

According to an information given by MoS for Ministry of Science & Technology, YS Chowdary, in reply to a question in Lok Sabha yesterday, under the National Monsoon Mission initiative, the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad and National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF), NOIDA have embarked upon to build a state-of-the-art coupled ocean atmospheric model.

The initiative is to have: an improved prediction of monsoon rainfall on extended range to seasonal time scale (16 days to one season); improved prediction of temperature, rainfall and extreme weather events on short to medium range time scale (up to 15 days). 

It will improve the forecast skill for operational services of India Meteorological Department (IMD), said the statement, adding "For the first time, India Meteorological Department used the Monsoon Mission dynamical model to prepare operational seasonal forecast of 2017 monsoon rainfall over India."

The statement informed that IMD in collaboration with Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) provides district level agro meteorological advisories to farmers through 130 agromet field units. 

"Currently, about 22 million farmers are receiving crop specific agro-meteorological advisories in vernacular languages. These advisories are used for critical farm operations Viz. (i) Management of sowing (Delayed onset of rains); (ii) Changing crop variety (Delay in rainfall); (iii) Spraying Pesticides for disease control (occurrence of rainfall); (iv) Managing Irrigation (Heavy rainfall Forecast)," it added.

The India Meteorological Department provides meteorological support to the Central Water Commission (CWC) for issuing flood warnings. 

Further, the statement said that allocation for the Monsoon Mission for the period 2012-17 was Rs 400 crores and for the period 2017-20 is Rs 151 crores.