Lok Sabha Question No. 1050 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-07-26
Subject: ACROSS Scheme
Ministry: EARTH SCIENCES
Asked by: Maddila  Gurumoorthy

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1050

## TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, 26 TH  JULY, 2023

## ACROSS SCHEME

## 1050.  SHRI MADDILA GURUMOORTHY:

Will the Minister of EARTH SCIENCES be pleased to state:

- (a) the details of the Atmosphere and Climate Research-Modelling Observing Systems & Services (ACROSS) scheme which aims to provide for a reliable weather and climate forecast;
- (b) the progress made under the same and the intended impact of the said scheme; and
- (c) the details of other measures being taken to improve climate forecasting?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF EARTH SCIENCES (SHRI KIREN RIJIJU)

- (a) Atmosphere  &  Climate  Research-Modelling  Observing  Systems  &  Services  (ACROSS) umbrella  scheme  is  central  sector  scheme,  pertains  to  the  atmospheric  science  programs  of Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES). The entire gamut of weather/climate prediction involves the  observational  systems,  assimilation  of  meteorological  observations,  understanding  the processes, research and development of dynamical models and providing the forecast services. Each of these aspects is incorporated as sub-scheme under the umbrella scheme ACROSS and is  implemented  by  four  different  institutions  under  MoES  namely:  India  Meteorological Department  (IMD),  National  Centre  for  Medium  Range  Weather  Forecasting  (NCMRWF), Indian  Institute  of  Tropical  Meteorology  (IITM)  and  Indian  National  Centre  for  Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) which implements a small part of one of the sub-schemes.
- (b) The progress made under the ACROSS scheme are listed below:
- (i) Development of global advanced weather prediction models and Ensemble Prediction System  to  generate  deterministic  and  probabilistic  forecasts  at  a  high  horizontal resolution of 12 km. In addition, regional models with higher resolution also have been developed.
- (ii) For past few years, skill of IMD's weather forecasts and warnings, especially cyclone prediction has improved substantially.
- (iii) A first  of  its  kind  high-resolution  Air  Quality  Early  Warning  System  for  Delhi  has been developed to predict extreme air pollution events in Delhi. A very high-resolution (400 meters) model for operational air quality forecasts using both satellite and surface chemical data assimilation has been developed.
- (iv) Procurement of 6.8 Petaflop High Performance Computer (HPC) in 2018.
- (v) The number of Doppler Weather Radars (DWR) network has been increased to 37.
- (vi) A  Multi-Mission  Meteorological  Data  Receiving  &  Processing  System ( MMDRPS) has been established. The system has three dedicated earth station and data receiving system to receive the data from currently operational Geostationary satellites INSAT3D, INSAT-3DR and INSAT-3DS to be launched in year the 2021-22.
- (vii) Seventeen (17) High Wind Speed Recorders (HWSR) were installed at Vishakapatnam, Machilipatnam, Chennai, Goa, Cuddalore, Bhubaneshwar, Kakinada, Puri,  Ongole,  Digha,  Kavali,  Haldia,  Pamban,  Gopalpur,  Kanyakumari,  Veraval and Bhuj.
- (viii) Establishment  of  199  new  Agro-Meteorological  Field  Units  (AMFUs)  for  rendering Agromet Advisories in addition to already existing 130 AMFUs.
- (ix) IMD provides  agrometeorological  advisories  twice  in  a  week  in  collaboration  with Indian Council for Agricultural  Research (ICAR).  A  recent assessment report published by the National  Council  of  Applied  Economic  Research  (NCAER) concluded  that  investments  made  by  the  Government  to  enhance  weather  and forecasting services are yielding great economic benefits to farmers, livestock rearers and  fisherfolk.  India's  investment  of  nearly  1,000  crores  through  Monsoon  Mission and High Performance Computers yielded benefits worth rupees 50 thousand crores to ~10.7 million below poverty line (BPL) agricultural households and 0.53 million BPL fisherfolk households in the country over a period of five years. Therefore, investments  by  Government  have  yielded  fifty-fold  gains  to  agricultural  farmers, livestock rearers, and fisherfolk of India.
- (x) A  Lightning  Location  Network  with  sensors  at  83  locations  across  the  country  has been  put  in  place.  The  DAMINI  LIGHTNING  ALERT  Mobile  App  has  been developed and released in May 2020.
- (xi) Thunderstorm warning for 1022 stations covered all over the country as nowcast basis (3hrs forecast).
- (xii) The Cloud Aerosol Interaction and Precipitation Enhancement Experiment (CAIPEEX) observational campaign, was conducted during 2018-19 and 2019-20 for understanding cloud and rainfall processes in natural and seeded clouds over the rain shadow region, and resulted in 240 hours of observations.
- (xiii) The Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) has developed an Earth System Model (ESM) for the first time. The IITM-ESM will be the first climate model from India  that  participated  in  the  Coupled  Modeling  Intercomparison  Project-Phase  6 (CMIP6)  experiments  required  for  the  Intergovernmental  Panel  on  Climate  Change (IPCC) 6th Assessment Report.
- (xiv) A new open access book on Assessment of Climate Change over the Indian Region has been  published  in  June  2020.  This  is  the  first  climate  change  report  for  the  Indian region  from  the  Ministry  of  Earth  Sciences,  and  discusses  the  influence  of  humaninduced  global  climate  change  over  the  Indian  subcontinent,  the  adjoining  Indian Ocean, the Himalayas and on the regional monsoon.
- (xv) State  wise  reports  have  been  prepared  on  rainfall  changes/trends  and  its  variability based on the recent 30 years of data (1989-2018).
- (xvi) Upgradation  of  the  forecast dissemination  strategy . MoES  has  made  a  drastic improvement in the dissemination of weather-related information to all stakeholders, including the public.
- (xvii) Atmospheric Research Testbed has been established in the State of Madhya Pradesh with state-of-the art measurement systems for improving the model parameterization.
- (c) Augmentation of observational network across the country along with the computing facility helped in improving the weather and climate research in the country.

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