Entire country to be covered by doppler weather radar network by 2025

Tags: Science and Technology National News

Union Minister of State for Earth Sciences, Dr Jitendra Singh on 15 January informed that by 2025, the entire country will be covered by Doppler weather radar network so that extreme weather events can be predicted more accurately.

An overview of the news

• The accuracy of the meteorological department's forecast regarding severe weather has improved by about 40 per cent in the last eight to nine years.

• In this sequence, by 2025, there will be a Doppler radar network across the country. The number of Doppler radars in the country has increased from 15 in 2013 to 37 in 2023.

• India will set up 25 more radars in the next two to three years, taking the number to 62.

• Speaking on the occasion of the 148th Foundation Day of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the minister said with the improvement in forecasting, the disaster-related death rate has come down to single digit.

• IMD commissioned four Doppler Weather Radars (DWRs) in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir. This will strengthen the weather monitoring capabilities in the Western Himalayan region.

• These were installed at Surkanda Devi in Uttarakhand, Jot and Murari Devi in Himachal and Banihal Top in Jammu and Kashmir.

What is Doppler Weather Radar?

• It is a special type of radar that uses the Doppler effect to generate velocity data about objects at a distance.

• It is designed to improve accuracy in long range weather forecasting and monitoring using a parabolic dish antenna and a foam sandwich spherical radome.

What is Radar (Radio Detection and Ranging)?

• It is a device that uses electromagnetic waves in the microwave region to detect the location, height, intensity, and speed of moving and non-moving objects.

What is the Doppler effect?

• It refers to the change in wave frequency during the relative motion between a wave source and its observer. 

• It was discovered by Johann Doppler, who described it as a process of increasing or decreasing the luminosity of stars depending on the relative motion of the star.