Mission MAUSAM, an initiative led by the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), is designed to position India as a world leader in the field of weather and climate sciences. It aimed to make India “Weather Ready” and “Climate Smart”, complying with the international standards by 2026.
- It was approved by the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi in September 2024, with a total budget outlay of Rs 2,000 crore for period of 2 years.
- It aims to revolutionize India’s weather and climate services, ensuring timely and precise observation modeling, and forecasting information for various sectors like: agriculture, disaster management and rural development.
About Mission MAUSAM:
i.It is a transformative initiative which aims to boost India’s capacity in weather and climate-related sciences and services.
- Key Target: To setup 50 Doppler Weather Radars (DWR), 60 Radio Sonde /Radio Wind (RS/RW) stations, 100 disdrometers, 10 Wind Profilers, 25 radiometers, 1 urban test-bed, 1 process test-bed, 1 ocean research station and 10 marine automatic weather stations with upper air observation.
ii.The mission is being implemented by MoES through its 3 premier institutions: New Delhi (Delhi)-based India Meteorological Department (IMD), Noida (Uttar Pradesh, UP) based National Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF) and Pune (Maharashtra)-based Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM).
- The IMD will mainly focus on observations, services, decision support systems, and dissemination. The IITM will focus on specialized field campaigns, research testbeds, process studies, and modeling. The NCMRWF will focus on data assimilation and seamless weather prediction.
- The mission further received support from allied bodies of MoES like: Hyderabad (Telangana)-based Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) and Chennai (Tamil Nadu, TN)-based National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT).
iii.The mission is based on ‘multi-pronged approach’ which will help in achieving its key objectives that include:
- Infrastructure Development: It includes the installation of Doppler Weather Radars (DWRs), Automatic Weather Stations (AWS), and rain gauges across India.
- Supercomputing Power: It involves the use of high-performance computing systems like: Pratyush and Mihir for advanced climate modelling.
- Collaborative Research: The mission fosters partnerships with international organisations like: World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) to improve forecasting techniques.
- Public Outreach: It includes dissemination of user-friendly advisories through mobile applications (apps) for example: Mausam app; Short Message Service(SMS) services and media channels.
Key Objectives:
The mission has outlined some of its key objectives that include:
i.To develop cutting edge weather surveillance technologies & Systems;
ii.To implement higher resolution atmospheric observations with better temporal and spatial sampling or coverage for improved accuracy in forecasting monsoon behaviour;
iii.To implement next-generation radars, and satellites with advanced instrument payloads;
iv.To develop enhanced earth system models, and data-driven methods including the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Language (ML);
v.To build capacity by fostering research collaborations with national and international organisations;
vi.To improve India’s capability in weather forecasting across different scales i.e. short-term, medium term, extended-range, and seasonal.
Key Progress:
i.So far, more than 37 DWRs have been installed across India to bolster real-time monitoring capabilities.
ii.The Mausam app facilitates location-specific weather forecasts for 450 cities in India.
iii.Seasonal prediction models have witnessed significant improvement under the National Monsoon Mission framework.
iv.MoES has initiated specialized programs on urban flooding prediction and cyclone monitoring.
About Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES):
Union Minister of State (MoS) (Independent Charge, IC)– Dr. Jitendra Singh (Constituency- Udhampur, Jammu & Kashmir, J&K)
