Journalism of Courage
To improve monsoon forecast by having a better understanding of the rain-bearing clouds and its associated processes, a new atmospheric test-bed facility will soon be established near Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) in this regard was signed between the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, and the Madhya Pradesh Council of Science and Technology, at Prithvi Bhavan, New Delhi, on January 11. Under the five-year agreement, the team would focus on experiments related to furthering knowledge about the convection processes in clouds and precipitation. This is the only MoU signed with any council of science and technology in India.
The new facility, according to scientists involved in the project, will be able to provide vital inputs aiding and improving overall forecasts. Ravi Nanjundiah, IITM director, told The Indian Express, “This will be a long-term observation site that will create a good database for studying the behaviour of monsoon over this region, also termed as the ‘core monsoon zone’. The properties of clouds that exist over this region will be mainly studied.” About choosing Bhopal, Nanjundiah said the site was not just pristine and away from polluting sources, it also matched all the prerequisites for setting up such a testing facility.
“The selected site needed to be of flat terrain in order to obtain quality observations. This particular site near Bhopal fulfilled all these conditions,” he added. Senior IITM scientist G Pandithurai said, “The facility will allow climate scientists to test and improve the representation of all these physical processes related to convection, clouds, precipitation and land-atmosphere interactions in the numerical models.”
Pandithurai is associated with High Altitude Cloud Physics Laboratory in Mahabaleshwar, also operated by IITM. High-end instrumentation facility, inclusive of radiometres and radars, are being charted for the test-bed that would involve measurements of atmospheric properties and an in-depth study of the clouds.
In 2016, IITM had tied up with Sagar University in MP, located about 200 kms north of Bhopal where experiments on carbon emitting sources and composition of greenhouse gases were carried out. Though the estimate of the project is still being worked out, experts believe that the site has a potential of becoming a permanent site for monsoon study.
