139th IMD Foundation Day
By Dr Arvind Kumar
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15 January marks the auspicious occasion of the 139th anniversary of the foundation of the India Metrological Department. During all these years of its existence, IMD has contributed tremendously for the development of science of meteorology over the sub-continent. The department has served the cause of safety and well being of the people of India against weather related hazards and to economic development of the country. It is heartening to note that the IMD regards 15th January as an opportune moment to highlight its achievements and pathway for future development.
Many hilly regions in India, particularly Ladakh and Uttarakhad have suffered unprecedented havoc wreaked by cloud bursts, landslides and flash floods during 2010. There is a need for making available IMD services for such calamity-prone regions. The IMD through its sophisticated technology and experts can help such hazard-prone regions by sharing information in advance with the concerned state governments. This also calls for convergence mode between the Ministry of Earth Sciences and concerned state governments.
With the installation of High Power Computing System (HPCS), having a top speed of 14.4 Tera Flops and has 300 terabytes of storage with a robotic retrieval system with separate servers at 11 other meteorological centres across India, the IMD has been able to make high resolution global regional and local numerical weather prediction Models on 24X7 basis which will further lead to improve weather and climate services from very short range to long range scale (months to seasons) for the country. India is visited by natural calamities and disasters frequently. The IMD is called upon to play crucial role in calamity-prone regions in conjunction with other ministries and state governments. The synergy between the IMD and Central Ground Water Board (Ministry of Water Resources, Government of India) facilitated by India Water Foundation will benefit the stakeholders, especially the farmers.
