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Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh says, IMD is continuously working on improving operational forecasting models

08 December 2021, New Delhi: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said that India Meteorological Department (IMD) is continuously working on improving operational forecasting models for various weather and climate extreme events to help farmers and others.

In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today, the Minister said, the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) had launched an ambitious and well-resourced research programme on mission mode, called the Monsoon Mission. The first phase of the mission was implemented during 2012-2017 and the second phase (2017-22) is underway.

DrJitendra Singh said that India has augmented its capability of High-Performance Computing (HPC) system, which is close to 10 petaflops capacity now and it is the backbone of the monsoon research and operational services in the country. He said, India has the fourth best computing facilities in the world for weather and climate services and the Monsoon Mission has helped in the significant improvement of monsoon forecasts in all time scales, right from short-range to seasonal.

The Minister informed that India is now proud of having one of the best prediction system for generating real time forecasts and warnings in all spatial scales from a location to Block, district, meteorological subdivisions and homogeneous regions and temporal scales of a few hours (nowcast), 3 days (short range forecast), 4-7 days (medium range forecast) 1-4 weeks (extended range forecast) and one month to a season (long range forecast).

Dr Jitendra Singh said, IMD is issuing Impact Based Forecast (IBF) which give details of what the weather will do rather than what the weather will be. It contains the details of impacts expected from the severe weather elements and guidelines to general public about do’s and don’ts while getting exposed to severe weather conditions like cyclone, heat wave, thunderstorm and heavy rainfall.IMD also runs an operational Agrometeorological Advisory Services (AAS) viz., GraminKrishiMausamSewa (GKMS) scheme for the benefit of farming community in the country.