Mission Mausam: Rs 2,000 crore fillip for weather forecasting

Mission Mausam aims to cover all aspects of weather and forecasting services offered in the country. A similar boost to monsoon prediction was in 2012, with the launch of Mission Monsoon. It had targeted the improvement of the country’s long-range forecasts.

At present, the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) forecasting of an extreme event like heatwave up to 24 hours in advance is about 97.99 per cent accurate. The accuracy for heavy rainfall forecasts, however, stands at only about 80 per cent.

Mission Masum will be spearheaded by three institutions funded by the Ministry of Earth Sciences — the IMD, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, and National Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting, Noida. The mission’s primary objective is to provide accurate and timely weather forecasts and alerts at various geographical and temporal scales, provide alerts and warnings ahead of extreme weather events, introduce weather interventions that will help manage fog, hail and rainfall in addition to capacity building and training of personnel.

Since 2014, there has been nearly a five-time increase in the number of radars deployed at various locations across the country, including the Himalayan states.