150 years of the Indian Meteorological Department
On the occasion of the 150th year celebration of the Indian Meteorological Department, an integrated GIS based interactive mobile app MAUSAM ha been launched for all weather-related services. Current weather, forecast of every hour up to seven days, rainfall, humidity, sunrise/sunset, moonrise/moonset, rain and cyclone alert, aviation and Agro-Meteorological advisories can now be accessed through the application, which supports 12 Indian languages for varied users in India.
Mausam allows the public to view observations, forecasts, and warnings for their location through a map or search function using place names, pincodes, or coordinates. Forecasts and warnings are disseminated in text and graphics format this mobile App.
This platform is expected to empower the common person to access detailed weather forecasts for their chosen location with a simple click on the map including the oceanic area. The forecasts are available on an hourly, 3-hourly, and 6-hourly basis upto next 10-days, covering crucial weather parameters such as rainfall, temperature, humidity, wind speed, and cloud cover.
The module is developed indigenously within IMD using state-of-the-art tools and technologies and can be availed also through IMD Website (https://mausamgram.imd.gov.in).
IMD came up with climate service in 1908, aviation meteorological service in 1911, ozone monitoring in 1928, agrometeorological service in 1945, positional astronomy in 1955, marine services and flood meteorological service in 1966, storm surge warning in 1977, Antarctica expedition in 1982, and mountain weather service for Himalayas in 1998.
Dr Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, Director General of Meteorology
The IMD along with the ministry of panchayati raj and Green Alert Mausam Sewa has also jointly developed Panchayat Mausam Sewa Portal. Through this portal weather forecast in English, Hindi and twelve regional languages will be provided to every panchayat head and panchayat secretary to reach every village of the country.
This initiative is to enrich every farmer of the country with weather alerts, warnings, medium range weather forecast to help them in planning the agricultural activities like sowing, transplantation, application of irrigation, fertilizers, pesticides, etc. It will also help in reducing the input cost and crop loss due to aberrant weather, and finally increase the production and income. The URL of the developed webpage is https://mausam.imd.gov.in/greenalerts.
According to Dr Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, Director General of Meteorology, the evolution of meteorological services in the country since commenced with Port warnings in 1865. IMD came up with climate service in 1908, aviation meteorological service in 1911, ozone monitoring in 1928, agrometeorological service in 1945, positional astronomy in 1955, marine services and flood meteorological service in 1966, storm surge warning in 1977, Antarctica expedition in 1982, and mountain weather service for Himalayas in 1998. Digitisation & automation was taken up in 2006 under modernisation programme of IMD, followed by study of coastal inundation in 2013 in collaboration with INCOIS, air quality forecast in collaboration with IITM in 2018, impact-based forecasting in 2019, and urban meteorological services in 2020 among others.