Installation of Doppler Weather Radars

As on today, 2 Nos. of polarimetric Doppler Weather Radar (DWR) systems at Delhi- Lodi Road and Jaipur, respectively, are functional along with 16 Nos. non-polarimetric DWR systems, respectively at Chennai, Sriharikota, Machilipatnam, Visakhapatnam, Kolkata, Mumbai, Bhuj, Hyderabad, Nagpur, Patiala, Delhi Palam, Lucknow, Patna, Mohanbari, Agartala and Bhopal, in other parts of the country. Installation of 3 Nos. of non-polarimetric DWRs at Paradip, Goa and Karaikal is taken up now. Based on scientific assessment of the needs for further augmentation of observing system network, comprising Doppler Weather Radars, rain radars, Automatic Weather Stations (AWSs), Automatic Rain Gauges (ARGs), Snow Gauges etc has been formulated for western Himalayan states of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Data generated from all observing systems viz. surface and upper air observations, satellite observations, aircraft observations, DWRs etc. are fully used by various forecast models to generate most representative initial state 3-D structure of the atmosphere and high resolution (9km grid scale) forecasts over India to predict heavy rainfall occurrences. Range of Doppler Weather Radar for surveillance is approximately 500Kms. However, for quantitative rain estimation it is restricted to around 100 Kms. and for velocity it is around 200 Kms. Only if operated in rapid scanning cycle. DWR network is primarily employed to improve the severe weather surveillance capability including tropical cyclones and for operating now-casting (very short range up to 6h in advance) service (operated for about 140 locations across India).