The Ministry of Earth Sciences has target setting up 60 additional radars to augment the existing 39 functional radars by March 2026 under the ₹2,000-crore Mission Mausam approved by Cabinet on Wednesday, said Secretary M Ravichandran. The funds will allow India Meteorological Department (IMD) to gather more data, potentially increasing accuracy and reduce geographical radius in the forecasting system.

Briefing media on Thursday, he said the objective is to strengthen the various components of the Earth System observations, understanding and modelling to improve weather forecast (both spatial and temporal scales). It will help in weather intervention and improve air quality forecast, he added.

By increasing radar deployment to 100 locations will help strengthen observations (in-situ and remote sensing) and improve model capability to be able to plan and protect life and property from extreme and high-impact weather, he said.

Speed & accuracy

Suppose the current frequency of nowcast (very short term forecast) is issued every three hours, IMD will be able to bring down it to every one hour or even less, with more accuracy, as much as 75-80 per cent. Besides, if the validity of the current forecast is for next three hours, it may be possible to raise the validity to 5-6 hours, potentially helping disaster management agencies to get more time for preparedness, scientists said.

Ravichandran also said that using the funds, IMD will be able to augment drones, vertical wind profiler (for data collection of wind in the atmosphere) and radiometers (for data collection of temperature and humidity in the atmosphere). These measures will help increase accuracy of forecasting fogs, a senior IMD scientist said.

The secretary, though ruled out immediate application of weather management, said that Mission Mausam will help IMD and other research institutes for a better understanding on interventions for artificial suppression/enhancement of rain, hail, thunderstorm, lightning, seeding or dispersing into clouds/fog.

He also said the current funds are exhausted, which he is hopeful since companies will take a year to supply radar after orders are placed, the Ministry will be able to estimate the funds required for the send phase of Mission Mausam, that is scheduled to commence from April 2026.

The aim of the mission will be to bolster research and development in atmospheric sciences, weather surveillance, modelling, forecasting, and management. It will integrate advanced observation systems, high-performance computing and cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, and will also set a new benchmark for predicting weather with high precision.

Apart from IMD, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology and the National Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting will also be part of the implementation of the Mission. Mission Mausam will also include deploying next-generation satellite systems with advanced sensors and high-performance supercomputers, improved earth system models and a GIS-based automated Decision Support System for real-time data dissemination.