Introduction

The Ministry of Earth Science (MOES) was established in 2006 by bringing all the agencies specializing in weather and climate service and ocean developmental activities under one umbrella. MOES holistically addressesall aspects relating to Earth system processes for providing weather climate, ocean, coastal, hydrological and seismological services.

The Vision of Ministry is to excel as a knowledge and technology enterprise in the earth system science for public safety and socio-economic benefits to the nation.

Major Achievements

• Quality of weather and climate services has improved through the augmentation of atmospheric observational network, including Doppler Weather Radar Network. It helped in strengthening of data assimilation efforts.
• New Monsoon Mission was launched in 2012. It has used two dynamical prediction systems to predict the amount of rainfall in India. It has been successfully predicting short to medium range (upto 10 days), extended range (upto 20 days) and seasonal forcasts since then.
• India has developed first version of Earth System Model (ESM) with reasonably good fidelity in simulating the present climate. The ESM will be the first model from India to contribute to the forthcoming sixth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
• Agro-metrological advisories for farmers is being provided by Indian Metrological Department which is, at present benefiting around 2.54 crore farmers directly and making them earn more profit.
• Agro metrology is the study of weather and use of weather and climate information to enhance or expand agricultural crops in to increase crop production.
• Improvement in track and intensity forecast of tropical cyclones. Accurate forecasts of recent cyclones, Phailin & Hudhhud saved many lives.
• Air pollution monitoring & forecasting network was established at Delhi, Mumbai and Pune to monitor air quality generate air quality forecasts.
• A state of the art High Attitude Cloud Physics observatory at Mahabaleshwar, Pune was established for aerosol and cloud observation.
• It has established a large ocean observing network for Indian Ocean which includes moored buoys, coastal moorings, high frequency radars and AGRO floats etc.

What is Agro float?

An international collaboration that collects high quality temperature & salinity from the upper, 2000m of the ice-free global ocean and currents from the intermediate depths. A state of the art tsunami early warning system for Indian Ocean rim countries established at Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Science (INCOIS) (an autonomous organization of Ministry, based in Hyderabad). It has been designated as Regional Tsunami Service Provider (RTSP) by IOC/UNESCO with the responsibility for providing tsunami advisories to IOR countries.

• Implementation of storm surge prediction system for the Indian coasts and development of high resolution ocean regional models with advanced ocean data assimilation system for ocean state forecasts.

Some of the achievements in developing relevant ocean technologies with the help of National Institute for Ocean Technology (NIOT) are:

• Installation of desalination plants in three islands of Lakshdweep using a process based on low temperature thermal technology.
• An Autonomous Coring System (ACS) for finding gas hydrates occurrence
• A remotely operable vehicle for deep water survey and exploration
• An Open Sea cage culture technique for farming fish in open seas has been demonstrated off the Andhra Pradesh coast.
• Ministry along with other institutions made detailed survey & mapping of an area of about 1.6 million sqkm of exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
• Another major achievement was survey and exploration environmental impact assessment and technology development for exploration of polymetallic nodules (PMN) in the central Indian Ocean.
• A new research station 'Bharati' – a state of the act facility was commissioned at Larsemann Hills, Antartica in March 2012 – focusing on reanographic studies and phenomenon of continental breakup.
• A research station – Himansh was established in Himalayas with several monitoring system to support field survey and laboratory studied in Himalayas.

A national centre for seismology (NCS) at New Delhi to provide added twist to seismological research in country.Also a major programme on "scientific deep drilling in the Koynaintra plate seismic zone" was launched to setup deep borehole observation to unveil the sources governing seismicity in stable continental region.

Vision for 2030

There is considerable scope for further accelerating the current initiative to enable the country become global leader and for this MOES is taking into account the strength and in working to words its improvements and accuracy for future. Accordingly, a vision document has been prepared for next 15 years (up to 2030).

Features of this document

1) Farmers require weather forecasts at block level and for this an advanced weather prediction system with high resolution will be required. Hence the present district level advisories will be extended to block level and will b disseminated through 660 district centers by 2019.

2) As global warming is increasing and so increases the frequency of natural disasters and this requires more accurate prediction for its effective management which will involve a new modeling and observational strategy of probabilistic forecasts including establishment of research test beds. A separate program for prediction of severe weather and climate events is therefore envisaged.

3) To strengthen ocean services, the present observing system should be sustained and expanded by including robotic observing system, also to develop advanced high resolution ocean modeling system for predicting the variability of the Indian Ocean.

4) Ministry is also planning to expand its activities on Ocean survey and exploration, with a view to support the Blue economy, initiative of GOI, which will involve conducting bathymetric, geophysical and geological surveys and EEZ. Ministry has also planned to develop on centre of excellence for deep sea research to pressure research on deep sea exploration.

5) To fulfill its mandate of exploring the polar regions, it is envisaged to strengthen scientific activities including observations at these poles.

6) Ministry is also planning to provide excellent services in multi-hazard early warning system like
(a) Tropical cyclones and associated damages over Indian seas.
(b) Severe weather condition (ex- heavy rain, Food, Air pollution etc.)
(c) Location specific now casts of thunderstorm, wind storm a lightening etc.
(d) Hydrological Information system and Food warning support – for all major river basins of country.

Conclusion: Other future scientific initiative envisaged are strengthening of climate sciences, development of research test beds and process studies, urban meteorology and studies and regional hydrological cycle including development of flood warning systems.

• Ministry will also be investing on basic research, infrastructure and human resource development & further development of international collaboration.
• Thus, ministry is committed to excel in providing weather, climate, ocean, coastal and seismological service and to be global leader in providing these services.

POSSIBLE QUESTION FROM EXAM POINT OF VIEW

"MOES is a specialized agency which is committed to excel in providing weather, climate, ocean, coastal and seismological services and to become a global leader in providing these services". In the light of above statement discuss the major achievement of ministry in past 10 years and also discuss its future vision. (200 words).