Ministry of Earth Sciences & Earth System Science Organisation Celebrates Its Day Function ; S Jaipal Reddy Calls for Promoting and Discovering New Perspective for Understanding Earth System Processes
The Ministry of Earth Sciences ( MoES) today celebrated its foundation day here in Vigyan Bhawan New Delhi. Shri S. Jaipal Reddy, Union Minister of Earth Sciences & Science and Technology who chaired the session called upon the MoES family of professionals to rededicate themselves by building new agenda to promote and discover a new perspective for understanding Earth System Processes and to build advanced knowledge based Monitoring, Detection, Warning & Decision Support Systems (DSS) for rendering improved services in respect of weather, climate, ocean state, hazards and also build programs leading to the sustainability of earth resources. He said Government has given full support for building appropriate national and international level focused Research & Development programmes in Ocean science, meteorology, climate, environment, seismology, cryosphere and biosphere.
The Minister detailed about the the following institutional endeavours and milestone achievements in his ministry:
i) Functional separation of Operational Seismology and Geosciences under the umbrella of Centre for Seismology through appropriate reorganization
ii) International Training Centre for Operational Oceanography at INCOIS, Hyderabad – signed MOU with Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC)
iii) Launch of Climate Information Services from IMD, Pune
iv) Signed the MoU with the Belmont Forum member countries to build collaborative research opportunity for Indian Scientists in the globally relevant areas of global environmental change and hazards having current focus on Fresh Water Security and Coastal Vulnerability
v) Announcement of collaborative research opportunity for building research programs with Natural Environmental Research Council of U K in the areas of Water Cycle and Earth Sciences
vi) Established BIMSTEC Centre for Weather and Climate as an Inter-Institutional Activity from the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting, NOIDA for enhancing regional cooperation on forecast information, early warning of hazards, capacity building and observing systems
vii) Launched activities towards establishment of India-Africa Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting in Mauritius as per the Announcement of Hon. Prime Minister of India at 2ndIndia-Africa Forum Summit held at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in May 2011 for leveraging weekly weather forecasts to harness benefits for building agro-advisory services.
viii) Augmentation of High Performance Computing Facilities to Peta Flop Scale across the institutions of MoES in support of building advanced Earth System Models
ix) Launched major expansion of Training Facility for Operational Meteorology in IMD, Pune
x) First batch of fully trained scientific pool of 17 professionals from MoES Centre for Advanced Training in Earth System Science & Climate have been inducted in various institutions of the Ministry.
xi) Launched major multi-disciplinary mineral exploration program for potential sites of hydro-thermal and multi-metalsulphide mineralization over the Indian Ocean ridge.
xii) India, who has been so far actively engaged in scientific activities in Arctic region and member of International Arctic Science Committed, has attained Observer Status in the Arctic Council in May 2013
xiii) India to lead global efforts for building Climate Services as Vice-Chair of the Inter-Governmental Board of Climate Services under the aegis of the World Meteorological Organization.
xiv) Functional Establishment activities of India™s new research station Bharati have been completed at Larsemann Hills during the recent 32nd Indian Scientific Expedition to Antarctica.
xv) 2-Units of Low Temperature Thermal Desalination Plants have been dedicated to the people of Minicoy and AgattiIslands of the Lakshadweep.
xvi) Pursuing Grand Challenge Programmes to address national priorities
· Monsoon Forecasting Issue through targeted efforts involving coupled Ocean-Atmospheric Models under Monsoon Mission.
· DPRs for Himalayan Meteorology and Glacier Research; Severe Weather Warning; Integrated Meteorological Services for North Eastern States; have been prepared for launching programs during XII Plan.
· Earthquake Pre-cursory Research Efforts at Koyna region of Maharashtra
He also announced that the Agro-meteorological Advisory Services (AAS) and the Potential Fishing Zone (PFZ) services have been among the most applauded user services rendered to the nation. He assured full support for expanded penetration of such services to the nation.
Shri Reddy said Recent heavy rainfall epochs and associated floods and large scale devastation in Uttarakhand have posed great challenges for augmenting weather, climate and hazard monitoring and warning systems in difficult hilly terrains. He also assured full support of the Government in all such efforts to render improved services to the people of hilly states.
The Guest of Honour Prof. Sir Brian Hoskins, Director, Grantham Institute for Climate Change, Imperial College, London, University of Reading,UK gave a vibrant presentation The Indian Summer Monsoon-A Global Phenomenon . Under it he discussed various aspects of the Indian Summer Monsoon which included the rain patterns since 2002. He detailed about the Behaviour of upper level (370K) PV structure in 2009 (August 2009 PV).
In addition he elaborated on the following points:
The low-level flow across the equator into the Indian Monsoon, Response to deep convective heating in the tropics, The low-level flow across the equator into the Indian Monsoon , The Mediterranean is part of the Asian Summer Monsoon, Upper atmosphere (370K) structure , Bi-weekly oscillation in model with idealised TP Orography & heating and the Pakistan floods summer 2010/Indian floods 2013
He concluded by saying that the Indian Summer Monsoon influences and is influenced by a significant proportion of the world™s weather/climate in June-August and it is vital to improve understanding of these connections for prediction on time-scales from 1day to 1 century.
On this occasion the Life Time Excellence Award was given to Prof. Roddam Narasimha from Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advance Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bangaluru, The Award carries a cash prize of Rs. 5.00 lakhs and a citation; in the field of Ocean Science & Technology, Atmospheric Science & Technology, Geoscience & Technology and Polar Science & Cryosphere were given to Dr. Syed Wajih Ahmad Naqvi in the field of Ocean Science & Technology, Prof. U.C. Mohanty in the field of Atmospheric Science & Technology, Dr. Vijay Prasad Dimri in the field of Geoscience & Technology and Dr.Rasik Ravindra in the field of Polar Science & Cryosphere in addition the awards carries a cash prize of Rs 1.00 Lakh each and a citation. The young researcher award Dr. Nilanjan Saha the award carries a cash prize of Rs. 50,000/-. In addition certificates of merits were given in the categories of Ocean Science & Technology, Atmospheric Science & Technology some Ministry official were also awarded on this occasion. School children from across the country were also awarded for the drawing competition on the occasion.
The function was moderated by Dr. Shailesh Nayak, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences.
