Eighty-Six Automated Weather Stations Built Across North Eastern States To Improve Weather Forecast And Climate Analysis

India Meteorological Department (IMD) has installed modern Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) in North Eastern states of India.

Around 86 Automatic Weather Stations were installed in various states of the region. While 27 such stations were built in Assam, 16 stations were installed in Arunachal Pradesh.

This information was given by Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Science and Technology, Earth Sciences and Health and Family Welfare in a written reply in Lok Sabha.

In order to enhance the weather and climate services of the North Eastern region, an activity namely, ‘Integrated Meteorological Services for the North-East (NE) region’ has been initiated by the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) under the Central Sector scheme, Atmosphere & Climate Research-Modeling Observing Systems and Services (ACROSS).

Under the activity, entire observational network in the NE region will be augmented to improve the weather and forecasting skills over the region by commissioning of state of art systems like eight X-Band Doppler Weather Radars, GPS systems, Snow Gauges, and augmentation of Automatic Weather Stations, Automatic Rain Gauges etc.

This will include setting of observational network required for meeting aviation and other requirements through commissioning of Automated Weather Observing System or Heliport Automated Weather Observing System (AWOS/HAWOS), setting up and upgradation of Meteorological Centres (MCs) and other facilities across the region.

Augmentation of the observational network will help fill the data gap areas in the region, leading to better accuracy of forecasts and consequent precision in climate monitoring, analysis and climate prediction.