Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh says, ISRO has the requisite technologies to help protect small island statesfrom inundation due to rising temperatures

Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said thatISRO has the requisite technologies and expertize to provide information on advance warning of cyclones, monitoring of coast lines and coral reefs using space based inputs to support small island states to help them protect from inundation due to rising temperatures.

In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today, the Minister said, ISRO is gearing up to provide such information to some of the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in the Indian Ocean Region. He said, India, UK, Australia, Fiji, Jamaica and Mauritius jointly launched an initiative, Infrastructure for Resilient Island States (IRIS) to provide technical support on disaster resilience of infrastructure systems to SIDS, during the 26th Conference of Parties held in Glasgow, UK by United Nations.

The Minister said, IRIS, will also support SIDS by facilitating access to existing financial mechanisms for resilient infrastructure development. IRIS will extend its support on demand basis to 58 Small Island Developing States (SIDS) across geographic regions.

ISRO carries out prediction of track, intensity, landfall time and location of all cyclones originated in Indian Oceans using space based inputs. While India Meteorological Department (IMD) is the mandated agency to provide the Cyclone forecast advisories, ISRO supports IMD in improving the prediction methodologies and publish the R&D outputs for the help of all.

ISRO has carried out vulnerability assessment of the selected states along the Indian coastal region and has identified coastal stretch that are susceptible due to sea level rise. ISRO provides near real time prediction of storm surge and surge induced inundation for Indian coast during cyclone using satellite observations and numerical model.Maps of coral reefs of Indian Ocean, Red Sea and Gulf of Aden have been published and are updated regularly.  A region-specific Coral Bleaching Monitoring System based on sea surface temperature data is hosted on ISRO’s VEDAS geoportal.

Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh says, IMD is continuously working on improving operational forecasting models for various weather and climate extreme events to help farmers and others

Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said that India Meteorological Department (IMD) is continuously working on improving operational forecasting models for various weather and climate extreme events to help farmers and others.

In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today, the Minister said, the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) had launched an ambitious and well-resourced research programme on mission mode, called the Monsoon Mission. The first phase of the mission was implemented during 2012-2017 and the second phase (2017-22) is underway.

DrJitendra Singh said that India has augmented its capability of High-Performance Computing (HPC) system, which is close to 10 petaflops capacity now and it is the backbone of the monsoon research and operational services in the country. He said, India has the fourth best computing facilities in the world for weather and climate services and the Monsoon Mission has helped in the significant improvement of monsoon forecasts in all time scales, right from short-range to seasonal.

The Minister informed that India is now proud of having one of the best prediction system for generating real time forecasts and warnings in all spatial scales from a location to Block, district, meteorological subdivisions and homogeneous regions and temporal scales of a few hours (nowcast), 3 days (short range forecast), 4-7 days (medium range forecast) 1-4 weeks (extended range forecast) and one month to a season (long range forecast).

Dr Jitendra Singh said, IMD is issuing Impact Based Forecast (IBF) which give details of what the weather will do rather than what the weather will be. It contains the details of impacts expected from the severe weather elements and guidelines to general public about do’s and don’ts while getting exposed to severe weather conditions like cyclone, heat wave, thunderstorm and heavy rainfall.IMD also runs an operational Agrometeorological Advisory Services (AAS) viz., GraminKrishiMausamSewa (GKMS) scheme for the benefit of farming community in the country.