Nod to agreement for developing model for better weather prediction

The union cabinet on Wednesday approved the signing of a consortium agreement for a coordinated effort to develop a unified model for the seamless prediction of weather and climate.

The cabinet meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The agreement will be signed by Earth System Science Organization-Ministry of Earth Sciences (ESSO-MoES) with the UK Met Office (UKMO), Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) and the Commonwealth of Australia through its Bureau of Meteorology and the Commonwealth Scientific Industrial and Research Organisation (CSIRO).

An official release said that MoES will make an annual member contribution of 100,000 pounds to the unified model consortium.

It said the Indian scientific and academic community will benefit from this MoU as it is an enabling mechanism to jointly work on scientific challenges in the field of earth system modelling and weather and climate prediction.

"The MoU will allow the exchange of scientific resources as well as knowledge to support development of earth system modelling for weather and climate prediction over Indian monsoon region in particular," the release said.

The MOU is likely to be signed in January 2016, enabling India to become the fourth core UM partner.

Under the agreement, core partners will work under a common governance structure, decide on strategy for planning and designing of joint development programmes with prioritised tasks.

The UM is based on the emerging paradigm of seamless prediction of weather and climate.

National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting under Ministry of Earth Sciences (ESSO-NCMRWF) is focusing on the development of the seamless UM system for predicting monsoon from days to season under the National Monsoon Mission programme.

Although UKMO and ESSO-MoES have been working jointly on the UM modelling system since 2008, India through consortium agreement has proposed to become the fourth core UM partner to have a more robust collaborative partnership through joint development programmes, the release said.