Faulty data stations cloud IMD weather predictions

Lack of maintenance has left a quarter of instruments unable to transmit full data

August 14, 2016 01:39 am | Updated October 18, 2016 03:07 pm IST - NEW DELHI:

At least a quarter of the India Meteorological Department (IMD)’s recently installed rain gauges and Automatic Weather Stations (AWS), meant to supply hourly weather data from across the country, are not working to capacity.

Several instruments remain non-functional because of lack of qualified personnel to repair them.

The AWS, a key part of a modernisation drive and critical to improving monsoon forecasts and warning of emerging thunderstorms, cloudbursts and pollution spikes, are part of a Rs.1,000-crore upgrade of the department’s infrastructure, initiated barely four years ago in 2012.

These instruments are expected to relay hourly updates of temperature, sea level pressure and rainfall.

Updated data from these instruments are necessary for climate research as well as the IMD’s fortnightly and weekly rainfall outlook over States. There are between 550-1200 AWS sanctioned as part of IMD’s network that can be monitored online. Some of them are shared with regional agriculture departments as well as defence organisations.

Around 300 of these stations can currently be monitored, as part of the IMD’s online AWS network. A check by The Hindu on Thursday showed that over a 24-hour period, on an average, at least a quarter — sometimes more — weren’t relaying all the meteorological data they were supposed to such as temperature, sea level pressure, mean sea level pressure and rainfall.

At 8 a.m., for instance, between 60 and 80 AWS were not relaying data. In Uttar Pradesh, six of the eight installed stations were not transmitting rainfall or sea level pressure data; the same was the case with the five stations in Bihar. There is no uniformity in the number of sensors across States because of varying meteorological conditions across districts.

The lack of continuous and uniform data from these AWS impacts the accuracy of short-term (periods between 24 hours to five days) and medium-term (two weeks) forecasts.

A senior meteorologist associated with the organisation admitted, “There are problems with the network and sometimes nearly half of them aren’t working.”

He added that though the AWS were automatic, they needed battery replacements and periodic re-calibration as the instruments were sensitive to changes in humidity. Many are located on hills and other hard-to-reach regions and could malfunction unless regularly maintained. However, a shortage of technical personnel has made maintenance and upgrades difficult.

K.J. Ramesh, who took over as the IMD’s Director-General on August 1, admitted that the network — that also includes 1200 rain gauges — wasn’t upto speed. “There are problems with maintenance but we are working to fix it,” he told The Hindu . “For one, we are now easing procedures to allow State meteorological department officials to spend upto Rs 1 crore for maintenance without central clearance. That should make upkeep faster.”

Dr. Ramesh, however, clarified that AWS were prone to malfunction and weather agencies — both public and private all over the world — had issues with them.

Other meteorologists said that so far, the IMD’s meteorological forecast services had not been seriously off the mark due to of instrument malfunction because the department additionally relied on manually-operated devices for data.

“There can be several reasons for the weather stations not functioning, but usually when more than 10 per cent has not functioned, we have had to initiate some action,’ said. Shailesh Nayak, former Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences. For the monsoon forecast, the agency relies on a combination of sources such as traditional meteorological stations, AWS, rain gauges and satellite data. “Because there are other sources, the monsoon forecasts are never critically affected,” Mr. Nayak added, “but this has to be looked into.”

Faulty data stations cloud IMD forecasts

K.J. Ramesh, who took over as the IMD’s Director-General on August 1, admitted that the network — that also includes 1,200 rain gauges — wasn’t up to speed. “There are problems with maintenance but we are working to fix it,” he told The Hindu. “For one, we are now easing procedures to allow State meteorological department officials to spend up to Rs. 1 crore for maintenance without Central clearance. That should make upkeep faster.” Dr. Ramesh, however, clarified that AWS were prone to malfunction and weather agencies — both public and private all over the world — had issues with them.

Other meteorologists said that so far, the IMD’s meteorological forecast services had not been seriously off the mark due to instrument malfunction because the department additionally relied on manually operated devices for data. “There can be several reasons for the weather stations not functioning, but usually when more than 10 per cent has not functioned, we have had to initiate some action,” said Shailesh Nayak, former Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences. For the monsoon forecast, the agency relies on a combination of sources such as traditional meteorological stations, AWS, rain gauges and satellite data. “Because there are other sources, the monsoon forecasts are never critically affected,” he added.

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