Lok Sabha Question No. 151 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2016-02-24
Subject: Research Work
Ministry: EARTH SCIENCES
Asked by: MANOJ RAJORIA

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 151

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

## RESEARCH WORK

151. DR. MANOJ RAJORIA:

Will the Minister of EARTH SCIENCES be pleased to state:

- (a) the names of countries with which agreements have been signed to promote scientific cooperation in the field of Earth Sciences; and
- (b)
- the  details  of  the  work  conducted  under  the  said  agreement during the last three years and the current year?

## ANSWER

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

## (SHRI Y. S. CHOWDARY)

- (a) The  countries  with  which  agreements  have  been  signed  to promote scientific cooperation in the field of Earth Sciences are:
-  United State of America (USA), Indonesia, Mauritius, United Kingdom, Belmont Forum Countries (Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada,  China),  European  Commission,  France,  Germany, Japan, Norway, South Africa.
-  United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization/  Intergovernmental  Oceanographic  Commission (UNESCO/IOC).
-  BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical  and  Economic  Cooperation)  Member  countries namely Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and  Thailand.
- (b) The  details  of  the  work  conducted  under  the  said  agreement during the last years and current year is in Annexure-1.

## The details of the work conducted under the agreement with various countries during the last years and current year

|   Sl. No . | Name of the country with whom MoU/Agreem ent/ signed        | Year which signed   | Broad objectives                                                | Details of the work undertaken so far                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             |
|------------|-------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|          1 | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administratio n(NOAA), USA | 16.4.2008           | Technical Cooperation in Earth Observations and Earth Sciences. | MoU for Technical Cooperation in Earth Observations and Earth Sciences between National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), USA and Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) was signed on 16 April 2008. Under this MoU, ten joint research and development activities have been undertaken with identified Principal Investigator (PIs) from India and US with well defined objectives and deliverables in the field of monsoon, ocean observations, tropical cyclone, Tsunami, INSAT 3D, Predictive Capabilities on Marine Fisheries and Harmful Algal blooms, development of an ocean wave modeling and assimilation system for the Indian Ocean Region to enhance the capability to generate a skillful global wave model systems especially for monsoon conditions. (a) The collaboration has resulted in fundamental understanding of Indian Ocean dynamics and ocean-atmosphere interactions that affect the weather and climate through ocean observations from RAMA |

| moorings.  129  RAMA  deployments  were  under  taken  during  the  period  2008  to  present. Till date, the data from  RAMA moorings have been used  in  78  articles  published  in  international  journals.  India  is  also  using  RAMA  data  to  generate  ocean  analysis  products  through  the  assimilation.  Global  ocean  analysis  using  GODAS  (Global  Ocean  Data  Assimilation  System)  by  assimilating  all  available  in-situ  data  forms  an  important  initial  condition  for  seasonal monsoon prediction by  coupled  model.  Considering  the  mutual  benefits  and  also  the  importance of RAMA moorings in  generating  useful  data,  this  activity  is  continued  for  additional  five  years  with  effect  from 16 April 2013.  (b)  Under  the  Implementing  Agreement  (IA)  on  Technical  Cooperation  for  the  study  of  Dynamical  Seasonal  Prediction  of  Indian  Summer  Monsoon  Rainfall,  a  'Monsoon  desk'  was  established  at  National  Centers  for  Environmental  Prediction  (NCEP).  Main objective of the IA  was  to  develop  dynamical  weather  prediction  models  for  understanding  of  the  Indian  monsoon  onset,  break  and  retreat  phases  and  associated  rainfall  characteristics.  The  work  under  taken  under  this  IA  has contributed to the "Monsoon  Mission" program of the MoES to  coordinate  numerical  model  simulations  and  diagnostics,  between  NCEP,    Earth  System  Science  Organisation-  Indian  Institute of Tropical Meteorology   |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| (ESSO-  IITM)    and  ESSO  -India  Meteorological  Department  (IMD).  This  has  been  useful  to  provide  improved  weather/climate  forecast  guidance  during  the  monsoon  rainy  season  to  various  Indian  economic  and  agriculture  sectors.  Some  of  the  major  works  undertaken under the IA include  (i)  Establishment of a dynamical  extended range forecast system  at  the  IITM  for  monsoon  prediction (ii) Establishment of a  Global  Forecast  System  and  Global  Ensemble  Forecast  System (GEFS) at ESSO-National  Centre  of  Medium  Range  Weather  Forecasting  (NCMRWF)  (iii)  Development  of  an  Earth  System Model at ESSO- IITM (iv)  Transfer  of  modelling  infrastructure  between  NCEP  and MoES institutes (v) Satellite  data assimilation etc.  (c)  Under  the  IA  on  Predictive  Capabilities  on  Marine  Fisheries  and Harmful  Algal  blooms,  two  main studies envisaged are:  i)  Develop  HAB  monitoring  and  prediction System (HAMPS) for  the Indian EEZ.  ii)  Short-term  prediction  of  Sardine,  Mackerel  and  anchovies  of  the  south  east  Arabian sea (STEP-SAM).  The  work  done  under  this  scientific  collaboration  so  far  are:  HAB  group:  A  species  specific  algorithm  was  developed  in  house  at  ESSO-  Centre  for  Marine  Living  Resources  &   |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| Ecology  (CMLRE),  Kochi    using  satellite and in situ data. Hands-  on  training  on  phytoplankton  toxin analysis was given to toxin  group  (CIFT).  The  algorithm  to  distinguish Noctiluca bloom from  other  diatom  bloom  has  been  developed  and  has  been  implemented  on  operational  mode at ESSO-INCOIS.  Workshops:  4  workshops  were  conducted  so  far  on  'Development  of  Predictive  Capabilities  on  Marine  Fisheries  and  Harmful  Algal  Blooms  in  Indian Seas' at Hyderabad, India  on  February  11-14,  2013;  'Development  of  Predictive  Capabilities  on  Marine  Fisheries  and  Harmful  Algal  Blooms  in  Indian  Seas'  at  Kochi  on  September  23-27  2013;  'Development  of  Predictive  Capabilities  on  Marine  Fisheries  and  Harmful  Algal  Blooms  in  Indian  Seas'  at  Kochi  on  September  22-26,  2014;  'Development  of  Predictive  Capabilities  on  Marine  Fisheries  and  Harmful  Algal  Blooms  in  Indian  Seas'  at  Hyderabad  on  September  16-26,  2015.    NOAA  experts  visited  India  and  provided  training  to  Indian  scientists  in  various  aspects  of  prediction modeling.  Training:  Training  on  stock  assessment  and  prediction  modeling  was  conducted.    On  capacity  building  aspect,  a  training programme  on 'Fishery  Stock  Assessment  and  Ecosystem  Modeling'  organized  at  INCOIS  in  Sep  2015  in  collaboration with NFSC (NOAA),  USA.  This  was  attended  by   |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

|    |                             |           |                                                                                | participants from 18 National Institutes and academia. d) Under the agreement signed on 14 Nov 2014 on Ocean wave modelling and data assimilation, Wave forecasting model (WW3) is made operational and a modelling study on the flash flooding events along Indian coastline caused by southern ocean swells (Kallakkadal events) is completed & communicated to journal.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              |
|----|-----------------------------|-----------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|  2 | Met. Office, United Kingdom | 28.8.2008 | Collaboration Agreement Met. Office's Unified Earth System Modelling Software. | Under this agreement, ESSO- NCMRWF has implemented the advanced seamless unified Modelling (UM) system of Met Office, UK. A comprehensive evaluation has demonstrated improved performance of the unified model against the performance of the existing model used by the National Weather Service of the country. In order to have a more robust collaborative partnership on joint developmental programs among all the international partners of the UM system (UK, Korea, Australia, India) under a common governance structure, a Consortium Agreement for Core partnership at an Annual Contribution of £ 100,000 is being undertaken. Following the approval of Cabinet, the Earth System Science Organization- Ministry of Earth Sciences (ESSO-MoES) has joined the consortium with the U. K. Met Office (UKMO), Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) and the Commonwealth of Australia through its Bureau of Meteorology and the Commonwealth Scientific |

|    |                                                                                                                                                         |            |                                                                                                                                                                                                        | Industrial and Research Organization (CSIRO) for a coordinated effort in the development of a state-of-art Unified Model (UM) Earth System Model for the seamless prediction of weather and climate from days to season. During the year 2015, state-of-art global, regional and convective scale model with horizontal resolutions of 17, 4 and 1.5 km respectively have been implemented. A global data assimilation system using observations from Indian/International Satellites has been implemented. An ensemble prediction system with 44 members has also been implemented to generate   |
|----|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|  3 | Belmont Forum Countries namely Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, European Commission, France, Germany, Japan, Norway, South Africa, UK and USA | 10.01.2013 | To carry out international collaborative research through joint calls for funding, with an aim to deliver knowledge to enable societies to meet sustainable developmental goals in the coming decades. | probabilistic forecasts. An MoU was signed between MoES and the Belmont forum Countries, which is a group of the world's major and emerging funders of global environmental change research and international science councils, to support Indian Scientists for international collaborative research through joint calls in societal relevant global environmental change challenges. Presently India is participating in 4 Collaborative Research Action (CRA) areas namely Coastal Vulnerability, Food Security, Biodiversity and Climate Services and Inter- regional linkages.               |
|  4 | The Nature Environment Research Council (NERC), United                                                                                                  | 1.3.2013   | Cooperation in the field of Earth Sciences                                                                                                                                                             | (a) MoES and the Nature Environmental Research Council (NERC) of UK, entered into an MoU with the objective of articulating a set of high priority research initiatives towards                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   |

| Kingdom   |
|-----------|

|    |                                                                                                     |            |                                                                                                                            | on the South Asian Monsoon. In this project IISc. Bangalore is the lead investigator with many Indian and UK institutes working together to understand the air- sea interaction in monsoon. (b) As part of the existing umbrella agreement between ESSO-MoES, India and NERC, UK on Technical Cooperation Earth Sciences signed in March 2013, a Scoping Workshop on Atmospheric Pollution and its Impact was organized during 11- 13 May 2015 in New Delhi to facilitate networking, discussion and enable researchers to share ideas on key research questions in the area of atmospheric pollution and human health which will contribute in improving air quality in Delhi. Following this, an Implementation Agreement (IA) on Atmospheric Pollution and Human Health in an Indian Megacity was signed between ESSO-MoES and DBT from India and NERC and Medical Research Council (MRC) from UK. An Announcement of Opportunity for inviting initial proposals from Indian and UK scientists was published in September 2015. Around 15 proposals have been received which are being peer-   |
|----|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|  5 | United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization/ Intergovernm ental Oceanograph ic | 04.07.2013 | Setting up of International Training Centre to enable support for capacity building activities in the field of operational | reviewed. Following the agreement signed in 2013, conducted 17 training programmes aiming at capacity development in the areas of operational oceanography to about 490 trainees from India and 73 from 23 countries mainly from the Indian Ocean rim countries and Africa.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       |

|    | Commission (UNESCO/IOC )                                                                                                                                                            |            | oceanography for the Indian Ocean Rim (IOR) and islands region as well as   | Between August 2015 - February 2016, 2 National and 2 International training courses were conducted and 131 trainees including 13 foreign participants were trained.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   |
|----|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|  6 | BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) Member countries namely Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand. | 04.03.2014 | Establishment of a BIMSTEC Centre for weather & climate                     | Following the signing of MoU in March 2014, the BIMSTEC Centre for Weather and Climate (BCWC) was established at ESSO- NCMRWF, in March 2014. A Training Workshop on 'Improved Weather and Climate Predictions' during 26 Aug-01 Sept 2014 was conducted at ESSO-NCMRWF, Noida with participants from Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka. Two scientists from Nepal (Tribhuban University, Kathmandu) visited for training on weather modeling and data assimilation in May-June 2014. The forecast products from theESSO- NCMRWF global models for the BIMSTEC region are disseminated through the ESSO-NCMRWF website. Research work to further improve the forecast products are being carried out. Prediction skill of the NCMRWF Unified model (NCUM) for extreme rainfall events was evaluated. It was found out that the model was able to predict extreme rainfall events 3 to 4 days in advance. A procedure was developed to identify extreme events from real-time rainfall |

|    |                                                             |            |                                                                                                                                                                            | forecasts for the BIMSTEC region.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            |
|----|-------------------------------------------------------------|------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|  7 | University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), USA | 24.09.2014 | It will result in improved forecasting skill for benefit of society at large. This will bring academia and scientists together to transform knowledge into service         | Under this MoU, enhanced cooperation involving various academic institutes in both countries for capacity building in the field of Earth System Science are being taken up. Few areas of cooperation include: Wind Profiler System Development; Radar Meteorology; Airborne platforms and Aircraft facilities; nowcasting of severe weather events; Hydrometeorology; Satellite /Remote Sensing data related research and development; Oceanographic and climate research; Capacity Building through scientific lectures and distance learning etc.; Urban Flooding. Some preliminary work under the said                                                    |
|  8 | Research Council of Norway, (RCN) Norway                    | 14.10.2014 | Exchange of scientific resources, personnel and technical knowledge to support the improvement or development of programs in Earth Sciences and Services for both parties. | MoU has been initiated. A joint call for undertaking collaborative work between India and Norway was launched in Feb 2015 under the two themes viz: Geo Hazards and Climate Systems in Polar Regions. A total of 19 proposals were received under these two themes. All the proposals went through a joint review mechanism and during the joint meeting held on 11th Sept., 2015, three proposals under the Geohazards theme and five proposals under Climate Systems in Polar Regions were selected for funding. The selected proposals are being processed for funding. The selected proposals under Climate Systems in Polar regions, will carry out the |

|    |                                    |            |                                                   | studies to understand the following: i. Ocean - sea-ice - atmosphere teleconnections between the Southern Ocean and North Atlantic during the Holocene; ii. Mass balance, dynamics, and climate of the central Dronning Maud Land coast, East Antarctica; iii. Impacts of South Asian Aerosols on Regional and Arctic Climate; iv. Effect of future Antarctic sea- ice loss on Indian summer Monsoon rainfall and v. Pliocene Arctic Climate Tele- connections Whereas under Geohazards theme, studies will be undertaken on the following topics: i. Intraplate Seismicity in India and Norway, ii. Landslide hazard assessment in NE India and iii. Delineation of the target fault- zone for Koyna scientific deep drilling by accurate   |
|----|------------------------------------|------------|---------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|  9 | the Helmholtz Association, Germany | 7.4.2015   | Cooperation in the field of earth system sciences | Under this MoU, an Implementation Agreement has been signed between ESSO-IITM, Pune and Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Germany in Dec., 2015 to work on a project entitled, 'Effect of Asian Summer Monsoon (ASM) on the Upper Troposphere-Lower Stratosphere (UTLS): Feedback on monsoon circulation'.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      |
| 10 | World Climate Research Program     | 09.02.2015 | Hosting International CLIVAR Monsoon              | The International CLIVER Monsoon Project Office (ICMPO) at ESSO-IITM Pune is responsible to (i) implement                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    |

| (WCRP), Geneva   | Project office (ICMPO) ESSO-IITM,   | at CLIVAR Research Opportunities such as intra-seasonal, seasonal and inter-annual variability and predictability of Monsoon                                                                                                               |
|------------------|-------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|                  | Pune.                               | systems, in close cooperation with relevant WCRP activities (ii) development of a CLIVAR 'Research Opportunity' on links between the monsoons and the cryosphere and (iii) Support to the Climate panels such as Monsoons Panel and Indian |
|                  |                                     | Ocean Region Panel. ICMPO/IITM has brought out three issues of CLIVAR Exchanges which include a special issue on monsoon,                                                                                                                  |
|                  |                                     | entitled                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   |
|                  |                                     | 'Advancing                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 |
|                  |                                     | understanding of monsoon                                                                                                                                                                                                                   |
|                  |                                     | and improving                                                                                                                                                                                                                              |
|                  |                                     | prediction'.                                                                                                                                                                                                                               |
| variability      | variability                         | variability                                                                                                                                                                                                                                |