Lok Sabha Question No. 19 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2016-02-24
Subject: Modernisation of Technology
Ministry: EARTH SCIENCES
Asked by: SAKSHI SWAMI MAHARAJ

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 19

## TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2016

## MODERNISATION OF TECHNOLOGY

19.      DR. SWAMI SAKSHIJI MAHARAJ:

Will the Minister of EARTH SCIENCES be pleased to state:

- (a) the  details  of  funds  allocated  for  modernisation  of  technology  related with  weather  forecasting/study  of  ocean  currents  and  forecasting  of natural disasters during the last three years and the current year so far;
- (b) the heads under which the said allocated funds spent;
- (c) whether the Government has taken any steps for meaningful utilisation of the allocated funds;
- (d) if so, the details thereof; and
- (e) the  role  of  National  Centre  of  Medium  Range  Weather  Forecasting (NCMRWF) in this project?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES

(SHRI Y. S. CHOWDARY)

- (a) Funds  allocated  for  modernisation  of  technology  related  with  weather forecasting, study of ocean currents and forecasting of natural disasters during the last three years and the current year are as under:
- (b) Grants were spent for augmentation and sustenance various observing systems over land and ocean regions surrounding India for monitoring, detection  and  forecasting  of  weather  and  climate  extremes  including severe weather events such as cyclones, heavy rainfall, severe thunder storm,  tsunami, coastal hazard  etc.  Funds  for  these  purpose  are allocated  under  the  sub  heads  Atmosphere  and  Climate  ResearchModeling Observing Systems and Services (ACROSS) and Ocean Services, Technology Observation and Resources Modeling and Science (O-STORMS)  on  year  to  year  basis  for  successful  implementation  of various programmes.
- (c)-(d)   Yes Madam. Starting from  XI five year plan, Government has initiated a comprehensive upgradation of (i) observation systems (ii) advanced data assimilation tools (iii) advanced communication and IT infrastructure (iv) high  performance  computing  systems  and  (v)  intensive/sophisticated training  of  Earth  System  Science  Organisation-India  Meteorological Department  (ESSO-  IMD)  personnel  to  facilitate  the  implementation  of advanced  global/regional/  meso-scale  prediction  models  for  improving the accuracy of weather forecasts in all temporal and spatial scales and for  quick  dissemination  of  weather  forecast  assessments/warnings  to the users.

| Year    |   Funds allocated (Rs. in Crores) | Funds utilized (Rs. in Crores)   |
|---------|-----------------------------------|----------------------------------|
| 2012-13 |                            213.5  | 148.94                           |
| 2013-14 |                            201.6  | 117 . 25                         |
| 2014-15 |                            198.67 | 108.67                           |
| 2015-16 |                            195.05 | 114.40                           |

The  HPC  systems  during  the  XIIth  plan  have  been  up-scaled  to  1.2 petaflops  so  far  to  support  the  ongoing  efforts  so  as  to  implement advanced  Numerical  Weather  Prediction  (NWP)  models  for  weather, climate  and  ocean  state  forecasting.  Operational  implementation  of improved forecast suite of models after the commissioning of the High Performance  Computing  (HPC)  systems  have  enhanced  the  weather forecasting capacities through assimilating all available global satellite radiance  data  for  the  production  of  forecast  products  at  22km  grid globally and 9km/3km grid over India/regional/mega city domains.

Further under  the National Monsoon  Mission  initiative, the Indian Institute  of  Tropical  Meteorology  (ESSO-IITM),  Pune,  Indian  National Centre  for  Ocean  Information  Services  (ESSO-INCOIS),  Hyderabad  and National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (ESSONCMRWF), NOIDA have embarked upon to build a state-of-the-art coupled ocean atmospheric model for a) improved prediction of monsoon rainfall on extended range to seasonal time scale (16 days to one season) and b) improved prediction of temperature, rainfall and extreme weather events on  short  to  medium  range  time  scale  (up  to  15  days)  so  that  forecast skill  gets  quantitatively  improved  further  for  operational  services  of ESSO-IMD.

- (e) ESSO-  NCMRWF  is  the  lead  modeling  and  data  assimilation  center  of ministry  of  earth  sciences,  engaged  in  making  use  of  the  global observations from atmosphere, ocean and land to prepare initial conditions to make a weather/climate forecasts using advanced models and  assimilation  techniques.  ESSO-  NCMRWF  has  implemented  an ensemble forecasting system to give probabilistic forecasts to users.

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