Participation of Private Sector in Weather Forecast

Why is in news? Participation of Private Sector in Weather Forecast and Disaster Management

Indian Meteorological Department signed a MoU with Google Asia Pvt Ltd in Sept-2021 for sharing the cyclone related advisories in the RA II region and for the development of nowcast technique for prediction of location specific rainfall.

In addition to above,

For dissemination of forecast and warning messages related to Agricultural services, Public Private Partnership is in vogue in IMD.

For development of indigenous radars, support from Private Sector is taken by the department.

For thunderstorm and lightning related weather services, IMD has working in collaboration with Climate Resilient Observing System Promotion Council (CROPC).

For providing support in the development of various met applications and services, proposals invited from Indian Startups.

The “Satellite Tracked Lagrangian Drifter with Barometric Pressure Sensor and INSAT communication” has been indigenized with the technology transfer from National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT).

Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) is the procuring entity as per need.

IMD has explored the possibility of replacing the old optical, odolite-based Pilot balloon system with the latest GPS-based Pilotsonde systems to get the upper air wind data with better accuracy.

This technology has the capacity to reduce the data loss and to further improve weather forecasting services.

Apart from this, many of the observational instrumentation (such as Doppler weather radars, automatic rain gauges etc) which are manufactured in the country are procured to support the Government’s Make in India policy, on need basis.

Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services:

Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) is an autonomous organization of the Government of India, under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, located in Pragathi Nagar, Hyderabad.

ESSO-INCOIS was established as an autonomous body in 1998 under the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) and is a unit of the Earth System Science Organization (ESSO).

ESSO- INCOIS is mandated to provide the best possible ocean information and advisory services to society, industry, government agencies and the scientific community through sustained ocean observations and constant improvements through systematic and focussed research.

INCOIS has been designated as the National Oceanographic Data Centre by the International Oceanographic Data Exchange Programme (IODE) of International Oceanographic Commission (IOC).

Further, INCOIS serves as the National Argo Data Centre, Regional Argo Data Centre, and also the regional data centre and clearing house for the Indian Ocean region for the IOGOOS Programme.

ESSO-INCOIS has a prominent international presence, being a permanent member of the Indian delegation to IOC of UNESCO and a founding member of the Indian Ocean Global Ocean Observing System (IOGOOS) and the Partnership for Observing the Oceans (POGO) which is actively engaged in capacity building and international exchange of students and researchers.

ESSO-INCOIS houses the IOGOOS secretariat and the Sustained Indian Ocean Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research (SIBER) International Programme Office.