2-Advances in hydrometeorological instruments, methods of observations and future prospects

Abstract

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) having recognised the importance of the scientific and technological advances as major influences on the World Weather Programme, embarked upon advance- ments in instruments, methods of observations, fast telecommunication systems, data processing, analysis and archival, fast research and development and archival of data with specific objectives. To attain these objectives, IMD has built in the latest informatics coupled with implementation programmes backed by research work of a high quality in the respective fields. The present paper deals with the hydrom- eteorological instruments which are either sensory or instrumental type that are installed in the field stations viz. (a)Synoptic Stations(Surface and Upperair),(b) Climatological Stations,(c) Agrometeorological Stations, (d) Aviational Stations, (e) Special Meteorological Stations, linked with advanced regional, national, and the global telecommunication network. Instruments used in IMD national network and those developed in India or abroad have been described briefly to highlight advancement in meteorological instruments. Most advanced technologies, like satellite based Data Collecting Platform (DCP); rainfall measuring radar viz. Dual Polarisation Weather Radar, Doppler Radar, VHF-UHF Radar, Radio Acoustic Sounding System (RASS), Millimeter-Wave Radar etc. and rain estimation techniques based on direct and indirect methods using INSAT satellite data collected from `VIS' and 'IR' have been described. Advanced hydrometeorological instruments as well as sensors that have been developed or under development have also been mentioned.