State to get 4 sophisticated radars

BHUBANESWAR: Even as the spectre of climate change looms large leading to frequent  extreme weather conditions, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has set about putting in place a more efficient weather monitoring system in Odisha. The state-of-the-art Doppler Weather Radar (DWR) system will soon give the State the capacity to predict more xthunderstorms, cyclones, heat and cold waves and other fast-developing weather systems, Director-General of Meteorology,  IMD, Ajit Tyagi has said. The State will get four DWRs, Tyagi told mediapersons on the sidelines of a users’ meet on ‘Weather Services to Odisha delivered by India Meteorological Department’. The DWRs are more sophisticated than the conventional radars. The radars will detect the intensity and speed of weather systems, including turbulence or wind speed, and can therefore predict thundershowers,  cyclones and other extreme weather conditions quickly and accurately.  This in turn will help provide aviation warnings, agro-meteorological advice to  the farmers and climatological data that is required for maintaining a data base. “A total of four DWRs will be installed in the State in two to three years,” S C Sahu, Director in-charge of Meteorological Centre, said adding these would be set up at Sambalpur, Paradip, Balasore and Gopalpur. Construction of the building for housing the radar has begun in Sambalpur. With the commissioning of this facility, it is possible to access latest weather data on the Internet by logging on to imdaws.com.  Speaking on the need for efficient weather warning systems for farmers, Sahu said the Meteorological Centre in Bhubaneswar has been providing weather information to farmers through agro-meteorological bulletins twice a week. The meet was attended by top scientists from the IMD, other experts in meteorology and representatives from sectors such as agriculture, disaster management, Air Force, Navy and media, in addition to researchers.