This implies, if Delhi or another metropolis needs to suppress rains throughout, say, I-Day celebrations, scientists would have the ability to do it by means of interventions. Equally, rain/ hail could be suppressed in cities throughout floods.“We want to go for initial experimental artificial rain suppression and enhancement. Lab simulations will be done in the next 18 months, but we’ll definitely go for artificial weather modification in the five-year ti me scale,” stated M Ravichandran, secretary, earth sciences ministry (MoES), on Thursday elaborating on Mission Mausam, which bought the Cupboard’s nod a day earlier.
Requested if rains may very well be suppressed over Delhi on August 15 (Independence Day), Ravichandran responded: “We can think of it (through weather modification)”.
Underneath the Mission Mausam mandate, scientists may even work on incremental enchancment of climate forecast methods within the nation by way of additional elevating forecast accuracy by 5-10%. Underneath the Mission, which goals to make India climate-smart and weather-ready by not letting any climate phenomena, together with even cloud burst, stay undetected, India Meteorological Division (IMD) together with different scientific establishments of the MoES may even develop and launch ‘Mausam GPT‘, a chatGPT like software, that may assist customers to get fast weather-related info in each written and audio type within the subsequent 5 years.
Suppression and enhancement of rain methods are already getting used by means of cloud seeding, utilizing plane, in a restricted means within the US, Canada, China, Russia and Australia amongst others. There have been cloud seeding initiatives, referred to as overseeding, geared toward lowering hail in an effort to stop injury to fruit orchards and grain fields in a few these international locations.
“Cloud seeding and cloud modification is a complex process. We have done a lot of experiments with cloud seeding to enhance rain with limited success. But not much has been done on cloud suppression,” Madhavan Rajeevan, former MoES secretary, advised TOI. He stated although there’s a scope in India for climate modification, its science will not be effectively understood and expertise is advanced. “In my opinion, we should start doing research in weather modification and we need investments,” stated Rajeevan.
Govt has initially accredited Rs 2,000 crore over two years for the Mission Mausam to create a extra sturdy forecasting system for coping with the impacts of excessive climate occasions and local weather change. Later, extra funds shall be earmarked for it.
India is already experimenting with synthetic rain making methods and have achieved some pilot initiatives in Maharashtra and elsewhere.
