50 more weather stations to be set up in NE

Aizawl, Jan 24: The Ministry of Science and Technology willinstall 50 more Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) in five North Easternstates before next monsoon.

According to National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting(NCMRWF), Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland would have six stations eachwhile the remaining 38 stations would be installed in Asom, Manipur andMizoram.

The stations would work as an alternative to the existing surfacemeteorological observatories and three Doppler Weather Radars forregion had been sanctioned for medium range weather forecasting.

The AWS would be equipped with electronic sensors to gaugepressure, temperatures, humidity, rainfall, wind speed and solarradiation.

It would also convert the weather parameters directly to digitaldata and transmit automatically through Indian National Satellitecommunication link to the central receiving station for processing bynumerical weather prediction models, NCMRWF officials said.

Of 79 revenue districts in NE, only 12 districts are covered sofar by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) as a result the mediumrange weather forecasting have become difficult, officials maintained.

According to plan, one Doppler Weather Radar would be installed at Kohima to forecast flood in Brahmaputra and Barak Valley.

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