Mission Mausam: India's Bold Initiative for Advanced Weather Management

Mission Mausam is India's comprehensive program aimed at improving weather forecasting and management using advanced observation networks, modelling, and AI-driven technologies. The initiative addresses the challenges posed by climate change with enhanced radars, cloud chambers, satellites, and supercomputers to help predict and manage weather phenomena at a granular level.

As weather patterns become increasingly erratic due to climate change, India has launched 'Mission Mausam,' a comprehensive initiative designed to enhance weather forecasting and management using advanced technological tools like AI and machine learning.

The mission will incorporate 'weather management' technologies, including a laboratory for artificial cloud development, over a 150% increase in radar installations, and the addition of new satellites and supercomputers.

The Ministry of Earth Sciences notes that complex atmospheric processes and sparse observational data make tropical weather forecasting a significant challenge. India's current numerical weather prediction models, with a 12-kilometre horizontal resolution, often fail to accurately predict small-scale weather phenomena. Enhanced data collection and improved models aim to address these challenges.

Climate change exacerbates the unpredictability, causing isolated heavy rainfall and localized droughts, posing dual threats of flooding and drought. The mission requires in-depth research into atmospheric processes across diverse environments, necessitating high-frequency observations for accurate monitoring.

The five-year mission will be implemented in two phases, focusing initially on expanding observational networks with Doppler radars, wind profilers, and radiometers, followed by satellite and aircraft additions. With more radars and advanced tools, the initiative aims to enhance weather and air quality predictions at granular levels.

Mission Mausam seeks to shift from merely predicting to managing weather, with plans to create artificial clouds in a laboratory setting to study their behavior and potential for cloud seeding in rainfall enhancement.

This method involves dispersing substances like silver iodide into the clouds to stimulate precipitation. While this technique has seen use in regions like the US, China, and UAE, its effectiveness remains under investigation. This mission could pave the way for significant advancements in weather management technologies.

(With inputs from agencies.)