Outskirts to get weather stations

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The India Meteorological Department (IMD) along with the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) will soon be setting up automatic weather stations (AWS) at Alibaug, Karjat, Pen and Bhiwandi as no-objection certificates have been issued by the concerned urban local bodies.
“The MMRDA had recently communicated the shortlisted sites for setting up the automatic weather stations to the IMD. These sites were identified by the Alibaug Municipal Council, Karjat Municipal Council, Konkan Irrigation Development Corporation for Pen and the Bhiwandi-Nijampur Municipal Corporation,” said Mr Dilip Kawathkar, joint project director, public relations, MMRDA.
The setting up of AWSs in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) is a part of the modernisation of IMD’s operational network in the country. The IMD will be setting up a total of 550 AWSs and 1,350 automatic rain-gauges (ARG) all across the country.
The AWS records the value of meteorological parameters like atmospheric pressure, air temperature, relative humidity, rainfall, wind speed and wind direction with the help of sensors. The stations then transmit the value automatically at predefined intervals to the Central Receiving Earth Station. The data can then be utilised for weather forecasting and to provide information to the general public and other agencies.
The responsibility of maintenance and security will remain with the local bodies and the IMD. In Mumbai, efforts are on to instal indigeneous Doppler radars at Navy Nagar. In April 2009, a Chinese-made Doppler radar had arrived, but was sent back due to security reasons as Chinese technical experts were to instal it at the highly sensitive area of Navy Nagar.
The Indian radar that
has been manufactured by Bharat Electronics Limited is bigger in size as compared to its Chinese counterpart and cheaper.