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G’nY SINCE 2001 a dEvElopmENt aNd GEoGraphYaNdYou.Com GeoGraphy and you ENvIroNmENt fortNIGhtlY VOL. 20  ISSUE 6-7 No. 144-145  2020 Guest editor’s opinion 48 Forecasting Tropical Cyclones in the Indian 4 Ocean Science to Services Ocean: A HYCOM-HWRF Coupled System shailesh nayak sudheer Joseph, a srivastava, a K das, a sharma, a mehra, Hyun-sook Kim, d iredell, s Gopalkrishnan, K J ramesh, m director’s opinion mohapatra, s s c shenoi & m rajeevan 6 Impact of Ocean Services on the Society F orecasting cyclones rising in the Indian Ocean is discussed. ESSO- satheesh c shenoi INCOIS and ESSO-IMD and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) work in collaboration. incois | parameterisinG 8 Ocean Observations: Contributions of 54 Coastal Vulnerability and Risk Assessment ESSO-INCOIS r s mahendra, p c mohanty, e shiva Kumar V p thangaprakash, m s Girishkumar, n suresh Kumar, & e pattabhi rama rao ajaykumar, a nherakkol and e pattabhi rama rao T his article presents ESSO-INCOIS’ use of remote sensing data E SSO-INCOIS has been maintaining in-situ observation networks combined with GIS technology that assesses the flooding concerns in the Indian Ocean under the Ocean Observation Network (OON) to of India’s coasts and predicts its vulnerability. understand the health of marine habitats. 18 Ocean State Forecast Services for the 62 Monitoring of Algal Blooms in the Indian Seas Maritime Community s K Baliarsingh, a samanta & a Lotliker T he world is experiencing frequent episodes of algal bloom events t m Balakrishnan nair, r Harikumar, K srinivas, m anuradha, in different oceanic regions. This article presents algal bloom m Kaviyazhahu, r Kumari & Y Grover monitoring service of ESSO-INCOIS for the Indian waters. I ndia is the only country in the northern Indian Ocean having an operational ocean state forecast services housed in ESSO-INCOIS, supported by in situ and satellite observations. incois | For peopLe 68 Fish-finding from Space: The Indian Journey 26 Elements of Numerical Ocean Modelling nagaraja Kumar & nimit K Francis p a T he PFZ technology for marine advisory and forecast services has T aking a close look at the core elements of the numerical ocean resulted in a remarkable betterment of lives and livelihoods of the modelling that serves as a virtual diving gear, this article delves fishing community across the Indian coast. into the unfathomable depths of the marine world. 72 Empowering Seafarers of India 32 Ocean data and information system | ODIS r Harikumar, m nagarajakumar & t m Balakrishnan nair r Venkat shesu, t V s udaya Bhaskar, e pattabhi E SSO-INCOIS provides a host of economic and environmental rama rao & ssc shenoi benefits to the coastal populace through a wide variety of services. Surveys find out the efficacy of the services. 36 Digital Ocean e pattabhi rama rao, t V s uday Bhaskar, r V shesu, 80 International Training Centre for Operational s Kumar, n srinivasa rao & ssc shenoi Oceanography T his article presents the development of a digital ocean, a single tVsu Bhaskar, L rose, B rohit, rK Jha, m preetham platform that efficiently integrates the heterogeneous ocean data & ssc shenoi and provides advanced visualisation. I n 2012 an International Training Centre for Operational Oceanography (ITCOocean) was set up at ESSO-INCOIS. incois | disaster manaGement Indian Tsunami Early Warning System: Future 40 Developments e pattabhi rama rao, ch patanjali Kumar, B ajay Kumar, mV sunanda, r s mahendra, pLn murty, J padmanabham, d saikia & ssc shenoi T his article describes components of the Indian Tsunami Early In BrIef Warning System(ITEWS) that was established after the 2004 2 Letters; 3 Editor’s Note; 86 Reaching Out; tsunami, including the decision support system and bulletins. 88 Books & Website

Expert Panel Rasik Ravindra Sachidanand Sinha B Meenakumari Prithvish Nag Geologist and Professor, CSRD, Former Chairperson, Former Vice Chancellor, Secretary General, Jawaharlal Nehru National Biodiversity MG Kashi Vidyapeeth, 36 IGC, New Delhi. University, New Delhi. Authority, Chennai. Varanasi. Ajit Tyagi K J Ramesh Saraswati Raju B Sengupta Air Vice Marshal (Retd) Former Director Former Professor, CSRD, Former Member Secretary, Former DG, IMD, General, IMD, Jawaharlal Nehru Central Pollution Control New Delhi. New Delhi. University, New Delhi. Board, New Delhi. Vol. 20, Issue 4-5, No. 142-143, 2020 | G’nY is of contemporary relevance and is based on empirical observations. Nevertheless, the article ‘On the margin in God’s own city’ for the city of Varanasi could have been enriched with the addition of a nuanced map. I particularly enjoyed GeoGraphy and you Deepak K Mishra’s article. It presented the inter-related aspects of social Guest editor groups, financial power and socio-economic status. More coverage on SHaILESH NayaK the middle class, agriculture, health and nutrition should be made a part editor of G’nY. Also an issue on ‘regional planning in India’ with a focus on SuLaGNa CHaTTOPaDHyay environment, sustainable development and other regional development programmes would be good.—JAYesh YADAV, Via Consumer Feedback leGal advisor KrISHNENDu DaTTa For more details log on to our website www.geographyandyou.com

esso-incois editorial team S S C Shenoi as a subscriber oF G’ny, & cultural heterogeneity thoughts especially from haSibur rahaman I am fully satisfied with among Muslim of India” the perspective of Indian CelSa almeida your articles. the latest also bestow many geographers.—sANJeet

interesting facts. In one cover Photo issue Caste Class in India KuMAR sINGh,Via FISHErmaN aT COCHIN provided me with a newer of the upcoming issues Consumer Feedback. By PraSaD perspective on the socio I would urge the team to corresPondence/ economic problems of our incorporate content on i enjoyed readinG the Jan editorial oFFice country. the approach “halal certification, its 1-15, 2019 issue of “Ocean 504, BHIKajI Cama BHawaN, was straight forward and relevance & why ‘non meat tech”. I am impressed by BHIKajI Cama PLaCE, NEw DELHI - 110066 provided with suitable industry’ approaches for the thoroughly researched PHONE: +91-11-46014233; examples. Being a uPsC halal certification.—Atul and well documented article +91-11-26186350 aspirant with Geography ANAND,Via Consumer on “Recent Developments FOr NEw SuBSCrIPTIONS, as my optional, the Feedback. in shore Protection for rENEwaLS, ENquIrIES PLEaSE CONTaCT Caste Class in India India’s Coasts” by MV CIrCuLaTION maNaGEr has given me content readinG G’ny has alWays Ramanamurthy et al. the E-maIL: info@geographyandyou. for case studies. In the been an enriching article is well supported com PLEaSE vISIT Our SITE aT future editions, I would experience. I find the with extensive illustrations, www.geographyandyou.com like to read development rare availability of print which helps in visualizing FOr FurTHEr INFOrmaTION. oriented topics and magazines and mobile the read.—surajit Das, ©GeoGraPhy and you their consequences compatibility of e-magazine Via Consumer Feedback. aLL rIGHTS rESErvED on environment like - a problem. In the last THrOuGHOuT THE wOrLD. sanctuaries, bullet train issue titled Caste Class in understandinG caste and rEPrODuCTION IN aNy maNNEr, ParT Or wHOLE, IS PrOHIBITED. proposed passing through India, I found the article, Class: Categories and protected areas or coal ‘understanding caste Measurement in the last Printed, Published and oWned by dr narmadeshWar mining approval in wildlife and class: categories issue was beautifully written Prasad. sanctuary in Arunachal.— and measurement ‘ the and illustrated with charts ROhAN ChAuDhARY, Via most informative., It has and data sheets along with Printed at INDIa GraPHIC SySTEmS PvT. Consumer Feedback covered both the modern certain steps to be taken LTD. F-23, OKHLa INDuSTrIaL and ancient perspectives towards the same. I would arEa, PHaSE-1, in the last issue titled Caste of divisions. Mutating and request GnY to pay more NEw DELHI - 110020. Class in India, the article futuristic scenario of caste attention to the concluding Published From “understanding caste and class should have section so as to create a LEarNING IN GEOGraPHy, HumaNITIES, TECHNOLOGy aND and class” by R B Bhagat been discussed in the way neutral mindset over the SCIENCE (LIGHTS) was most useful. It gave forward though. I would uPsC aspirants following 504, BHIKajI Cama BHawaN, some depth on the most like to read a magazine this magazine. BHIKajI Cama PLaCE, debatable topic in India. on ‘human geography ‘ —PRAshANt DAsh, Via NEw DELHI - 110066. “social diversity, hierarchy, topics like Geographical Consumer Feedback. GEOGraPHy aND yOu DOES NOT TaKE aNy rESPONSIBILITy FOr rETurNING uNSOLICITED PuBLICaTION maTErIaL. Write Editorial Office: LIGHTS, 501 & 504, Bhikaji Cama Bhawan, Bhikaji Cama Place, New Delhi - 110066. Letters may be edited for clarity aLL DISPuTES arE SuBjECTED TO THE and length. Include name, address and telephone. Phone 011-46014233, 26186350 e-mail [email protected] ExCLuSIvE jurISDICTION OF COmPETENT Facebook http://goo.gl/eIeaH, linkedin http://in.linkedin.com/pub/geography-and-you/5a/b32/b24 Website www.geographyandyou.com. COurTS aND FOrumS IN DELHI/NEw subscriPtions For institutional subscriptions of print copies you may write to [email protected] DELHI ONLy. to contribute an article: Kindly send the abstract of your article in not more than 200 words to [email protected]. The abstract will be reviewed by our peers. Once selected we shall respond for the procurement of full article. The length of the final article may range from 1000 to 1500 words. Please visit our web site for publication and peer review policy. The Editorial Advisor.

2 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 Fishing vessels preparing to go out to the sea using potential fishing zone advisories in Odisha

Editor’s note The secrets of the seas Seafarers inhabit two diverse realms, the proverbial chalk and cheese, land and ocean. In their fearless hearts lie a calling so unique that the deep blue instills a need to explore, to seek and to mark the rolling waves with myriad instruments that ferret the secrets of the seas. The Earth System Science Organisation’s premier institution Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), located in Hyderabad sets out to engage in the most arduous of all tasks, making sense of the vast seas and oceans around the Indian subcontinent. There are three sets of players in this great scheme. The first is at sea, a diverse network of buoys deployed with care in far flung locations. Some of these buoys are anchored, while Sulagna others float below the water, automatically adjusting its buoyancy to reach Chattopadhyay varied depths. They collect a whole range of information, ranging from Founder-Editor, Geography and You, temperature and salinity to even wave heights. Second, are the satellites New Delhi orbiting in space, that link the data emanating from the oceanic buoys editor@ and relay it in real time to a dedicated array of computers housed in the geographyandyou.com institute. And finally, the data computing laboratories that present the big picture, coalescing findings from the tiny secrets that the watery depths an m A h throw up. The people of ESSO-INCOIS stand tall, guiding seafarers and a R the coastal community towards reaping the benevolence of the deep, as sibur a

H also protecting them from its intermittent maleficity. This issue is thus dedicated to the sentinels of the seas—the scientists of India’s pride, the ESSO-INCOIS. Happy reading. Photo Courtesy: Photo  Guest editor’s opinion

ShaileSh Nayak Director, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Former Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences [email protected] Ocean Science to Services

cean is one of the most important components of the earth system as it provides us with living and mineral resources, energy and an ecosystem that is instrumental for our survival. In view of the importance of oceans, Othe United Nations has declared 2021-2030 as the ‘Decade of Oceans.’ This period coincides with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, especially the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14. The SDG 14 expressed a commitment to ‘Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development’. In view of these developments, the special issue of G’nY is timely. The scientific research on oceans has identified a complex array of biophysical goods and services that marine and coastal environments provide to people. Economic and social research has showcased multiple values of these environments and measured their contributions to human health, well-being and development. The ocean biological resources, especially fin fish, shellfish and seaweeds are being exploited to meet protein requirements. Satellite-based information on ocean colour, sea surface temperature and sea surface wind are being used to generate information on potential fishing zones (PFZ). Daily advisories on PFZ and sea state conditions are provided to fishermen since the last twenty-five years. The multilingual advisories, now in a mobile App, have helped fishers reduce the time for search, save in fuel cost and lower the catch per unit effort. At present, 90 per cent of fishers are utilising this service. Ocean colour products for the Indian Ocean are generated to answer questions such as how much phytoplankton the oceans contain, where they are located, how distribution is changing with time and how much photosynthesis they perform. One of the important services is about initiation, growth and decay of the algal blooms along the Indian coast, a knowledge vital for fishers and pollution control authorities. Corals are likely to be affected by warming of seas. A Coral Bleaching Alert System (CABS), providing bimonthly status of four major coral environments of India—Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshdweep Islands, Gulf of Mannar and Gulf of Kachchh has been set up. This service provides early signs of the coral degradation that undergo thermal stress and possible bleaching. The information on sea state—sea surface temperature, currents, mixed layer depth, waves and tides) is required for economic activities such as shipping, fishing, oil and gas production. Ocean general circulation model and regional ocean modelling system are being used to develop the Indian Ocean forecasting system. Numerical models have been customised to forecast waves, ocean currents and sea surface temperature among others, on a daily basis for the entire Indian coast at various spatial scales. Tsunami is a system of ocean waves formed as a result of large scale disturbances of the ocean floor. A state-of-the-art tsunami warning system, capable of receiving and analysing seismic and sea level in near real time from the Indian and global stations was set up in 2007. It provides advisories about travel time and run up height of a tsunami at 1800 coastal

4 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 forecast points within 10 minutes of the occurrence of an earthquake, to India and the Indian Ocean rim countries. The system has provided useful advisories in the last thirteen years and is recognised as the Regional Tsunami Service Provider for the Indian Ocean, ensuring leadership position of India in the Indian Ocean. The recent successes of prediction of location of centre, track, landfall point of cyclones and associated surge have been largely due to improved ocean observations including satellite scatterometer data and their assimilation into models. The recent use of the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) has assisted in the accurate, reliable and timely predictions of cyclones, leading to very efficient response from the local, state and central administration. The loss of lives which was in thousands in the last century has now come down to 10-20. Coastal vulnerability maps—cyclone, tsunami, and sea level rise, for the entire Indian coast, based on projected long-term rise in sea level and climatological data along with geomorphological setting have been produced. The vulnerability has been defined as an index indicating likelihood of physical changes that may occur and the natural ability of the coastal system to change environmental conditions. Such maps provide base level information for coastal management and are widely used by local administration. The Indian Ocean has been poorly observed compared to the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. The first expedition to the Indian Ocean in the early sixties provided insight into the role played by the Indian Ocean in modulating the global system. The The Indian Ocean has been setting up of the Indian Ocean Global Ocean Observation System (IOGOOS) in 2001 gave a major boost. Recently, the Inter-governmental Oceanographic poorly observed compared Commission (IOC), UNESCO in collaboration with Scientific Committee on Oceanographic Research (SCOR) and IOGOOS have launched the second to the Pacific and Atlantic International Indian Ocean Expedition (IIOE-2) to focus on the role of oceans Oceans. The first expedition on climate change. IIOE-2 has provided a great opportunity to scientists of this region to participate and contribute to increase the understanding of the to the Indian Ocean in the ocean. India has committed to provide logistics research vessels, scientific and technical manpower and financial resources to IIOE-2. early sixties provided insight The large volume of data of the Indian Ocean collected in the last fifty into the role played by the years or so, have been organised around a geographic information system (GIS) framework as the Ocean Data and Information System (ODIS). It Indian Ocean in modulating provides data on physical, chemical and biological parameters of oceans and coasts on various spatial and temporal domains that are vital for research the global system. and operational oceanography. This end-to-end system has matured as a prime vehicle, providing advisory services such as potential fishing zones, ocean state forecast, tsunami, coral reef alert and ocean data. The implementation of the ‘Digital Ocean’ will improve the integration of various oceanographic parameters for the understanding of ocean processes. Operational oceanography in India has got a tremendous boost in recent years due to rapid advances in satellite observations and modeling as well as computing, navigation and communication technologies, along with GIS which facilitated web and location- based services. To address the need for education and capacity building in the Indian Ocean region on operational oceanography, an International Centre on Operational Oceanography (ITCOcean) has been set up in ESSO-INCOIS. This Centre has been recognised as a Category II institute by UNESCO. ESSO-INCOIS has built effective communication with various stakeholders including policy makers. The usefulness and benefits of ocean information at local to national level has been demonstrated and thus the support of governments has been ensured for various activities. During the last two decades, the increased investments in ocean research for discovery of new phenomena, understanding of oceanic processes and their interaction with anthropogenic activities have led to the generation of new and strategic knowledge. Such knowledge has been innovatively used for the sustainability of oceans and building services for humanity.

GeoGraphy and you . 2020 5  Director’s oPinion

SatheeSh C Shenoi Director, Earth System Science Organisation-Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (ESSO-INCOIS). [email protected] Impact of Ocean Services on the Society

ne of the ‘seven social sins’ identified by Mahatma Gandhi includes ‘science without humanity’. That is, the science not useful for humanity is a sin. This gives us the message that science that is happening in laboratories should be put to OOuse by the common man. The Indian government decided to establish the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) in February 1999 with a mission to translate knowledge, data and information in marine sciences to advisories, warnings and information in a usable and understandable form so that the general populace can apply it to reap benefits. Accordingly, ESSO-INCOIS concentrated on ‘translational application of the research outcomes/knowledge in marine sciences’ to formulate simple products for the use of fishers, navigators, port and harbours, Indian Navy, Indian Coast Guard and the maritime industry. Providing such services on a day-to-day basis required continuous real time data availability, both from satellites and in situ platforms deployed in the ocean, formidable numerical models and computing and information technology infrastructure. Over the past 20 years, ESSO-INCOIS has evolved as a world class ocean information and services centre, recognised and well accepted world over. When we think of the oceans, fishing is the first activity that comes to mind. Millions of fisherfolk depend on fishing for their livelihood, roughing it out at sea looking for shoals of fish to cast their net. Though their experience and traditional knowledge come in handy, they often fail to find abundant fish. On many occasions, they spend a great deal of time and fuel in the oceans only to return with low or almost no catch. Keeping this in mind, the first service that was put out by ESSO-INCOIS was the potential fishing zone (PFZ) advisory. This made use of the relation between the sharp gradients in sea surface temperature (SST) formed due to the formation of transient fronts (due to the juxtaposition of warmer and cooler waters) and the associated higher concentrations of chlorophyll, the primary food in the ocean. Fish were found to be aggregating in these regions. The relationship was identified by the Space Application Centre (SAC), Ahmedabad, an ISRO Centre, when they analysed the daily data obtained using the satellite-based sensors. Today, the daily advisories on potential fishing advisories provided in the languages spoken in nine coastal states of India are directly used by 0.68 million (6.76 lakh) fisherfolk through their mobiles. The total number of fishers who venture out into the sea is estimated to be 0.9 million (9 lakhs). The number of fishers who receive advisories through other means such as the 100 odd electronic display boards installed by ESSO-INCOIS at fishing harbours and fish landing centres and through third party (NGOs and mobile apps) services are unknown. Several studies, conducted by ESSO-INCOIS as well as by independent agencies such as the National Centre for Applied Economic Research (NCAER) and the National Agricultural

6 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 Innovation Project, ICAR, have shown that the use of PFZ advisories helped the fisherfolk in multiplying their profits three times over. The other major services provided by ESSO-INCOIS include ocean state forecasts (OSF), tsunami early warnings (TEW), storm surge early warnings and the generation of ocean initial conditions for the atmospheric models used for the prediction of weather and climate. The OSF provides daily forecasts of ocean weather—waves, currents and SST, for five days in advance to all types of users from low technology fishers to high technology oil and natural gas companies. The specialised services that make use of the forecasted winds, waves and currents help the Indian Coast Guard and Maritime Police in locating and rescuing missing objects such as missing fishermen and fishing boats at sea and in predicting the movement of oil spills. The Tsunami Early Warning System (TEWS) was established at ESSO-INCOIS in October 2007 on the directions of the Indian government after the devastating tsunami in the Indian Ocean on December 26, 2004. The end-to-end system consists of seismic sensors to monitor large earthquakes on the seaf loor, sea level gauges and tsunami buoys to detect the tsunami waves (if generated), processing software for real time processing Ocean services provided of seismic and sea level data, decision support and auto dissemination systems, numerical models to assess the time of arrival and expected height to the society have been of tsunami waves on the coast at different locations. TEWS is supported with impactful and beneficial, modern communication systems including satellite communication for real time reception of data from various sensors deployed at remote locations on land and but a lot more can be done sea. The system disseminates early warnings in the quickest possible time and is the first warning system to achieve the target of providing location specific for the safety, sustainability early warnings on tsunamis. The approach eliminated the possibility of false and gainful living of all warnings that can arise for the basin wide early warnings provided only on the strength or magnitude of an earthquake. Considering the consistent performance stakeholders. of TEWS, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO designated it as the Regional Tsunami Service Provider for the entire Indian Ocean region. Accordingly, since October 2012, TEWS is also providing early warnings and advisories to 25 countries on the Indian Ocean rim. Though no major tsunami occurred in the Indian Ocean since December 2004, the advisories and early warnings issued at the times of large earthquakes in the Indian Ocean helped the government as well as the coastal population and sensitive installations not to panic and evacuate. The study conducted by NCAER in 2015 adds that the panic evacuation of millions from coastal areas would have cost at least INR 30000 to 40000 million in the wake of the 8.2 magnitude earthquake that occurred on the seabed west of Northern Sumatra, Indonesia on April 11, 2012. Though ocean services provided to the society have been impactful and are here to stay, a lot more can be done for the safety, sustainability and gainful living of all stakeholders. Perhaps limitations in our capacity to think far and the requisite resources required are impediments. In that perspective, it would be pertinent to end with a quote from Mahatma Gandhi’s 1925 speech to college students in Thiruvananthapuram, “In my humble opinion, there are limitations even to scientific search and the limitations that I place upon scientific search are the limitations that humanity imposes upon us”.

GeoGraphy and you . 2020 7  INCOIS | ParameterISINg

By V P Thangaprakash, M S Girishkumar, N Suresh Kumar, Ajaykumar, A Nherakkol and E Pattabhi Rama Rao Ocean ObservatiO n s Contributions of Esso-inCois

The ocean plays a vital role in determining weather and climate. The physical and chemical state of the ocean is key to determine marine habitats and the health of marine lives. Hence, it is imperative to understand the causes of variability in the ocean state across different time scales through data collected by in-situ ocean observation platforms. Further, the knowledge acquired through in-situ observation networks act as building blocks in the development of ocean state forecasting systems. Considering these aspects, ESSO-INCOIS has been maintaining various in-situ observation platforms in the Indian Ocean under the Ocean Observation Network (OON) programme. A synopsis of these networks is summarised in this article.

The authors are scientists at the Earth System Science Organisation-Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services, Hyderabad, Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), India. [email protected]. The article should be cited as Thangaprakash V. P., M.S. Girishkumar, N.S. Kumar, A. Kumar, N. Nherakkol and E. P. R. Rao, 2020. ESSO-INCOIS contribution to Ocean Observations, Geography and You, 20(6-7): 8-17

8 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 Deployment of ESSO-INCOIS flux mooring in northern Bay of Bengal onboard ORV Sagar Nidhi. usGs M/ oEr/boE A- noA 2017, sEArCh y: DEEPy: Es Photo Court Photo

GeoGraphy and you . 2020 9 composite network of in-situ ocean observations act as an integral part of all operational ocean forecast systems. Information obtained through these networks enables the understanding of ocean state and its underlying Aphysics, which then facilitates its evaluation with numerical models. Further, ocean observations provide vital information about past and present climate that assists researchers in the estimation of future climate systems. Policy makers, social and environmental conservationists can consequently use the estimations for better preparedness to help mitigate its impacts on the ecosystems and the society. Before the 20th century the Indian Ocean was under-sampled. Efforts were scaled up by the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) with the initiation of various observational systems under the Ocean Observation Network (OON) programme. The ESSO-INCOIS and ESSO-NIOT in collaboration with other institutes were entrusted with the implementation of OON. Broadly classified into coastal observing systems, large-scale observing systems and mesoscale and sub-mesoscale ocean observing systems, OON includes systems that cater for disaster management too (Fig. 1). This article presents the ocean in-situ observational network maintained by INCOIS and its contribution to the society.

Coastal ocean observing systems A coastal ocean observing system comprises ESSO-INCOIS many platforms which gather information on in collaboration the continental slope and shelf regions along the Indian coast and islands. Such platforms with CSIR-NIO, include the Wave Monitoring Along Near- shore (WAMAN) buoy networks that use the is maintaining a Wave Rider Buoy (WRB), coastal Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCPs) and tide vast amount of gauge networks. The WAMAN project was initiated in 2008 and currently 15 WRBs are in-situ observation active along the Indian coasts (Fig. 2). WRBs measure wave height and wave direction, surface platforms to support current and temperature. The near real-time the development of data received through INSAT communication from the WAMAN network is extensively used ocean state forecast to refine model wave forecasts. It also allows an opportunity for long-term monitoring of wave system. characteristics along the coasts, especially during extreme weather events such as cyclones. ESSO- INCOIS also maintains a WRB off Seychelles to

10 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 monitor the northward propagation of Southern of many platforms—tsunami buoys, Lagrangian- Ocean swells, which significantly impact India’s based Argo floats, drifters, automatic weather coasts. stations (AWS), eulerian-based flux and current To document coastal current variability at moorings and expendable bathythermograph seasonal, intraseasonal and interannual time- (XBT)/ expendable conductivity temperature scales, ESSO-INCOIS in collaboration with and depth (XCTD). The primary objective CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), of tsunami buoys are to provide support for maintains 17 coastal ADCP sub-surface moorings the Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre network along the coasts (Fig. 3) where 13 moorings (ITEWC) where early warnings of tsunami are just beyond the continental slope—one in each service are provided 24x7 by ESSO-INCOIS. The coastal state and 4 shelf moorings off the east coast ITEWC monitors and detects the propagation with inter-mooring space of 2.5 to 3o. Data from this of tsunami waves by gathering inputs from the network also provides an opportunity for validation real-time network of seismic stations (to detect of current fields simulated by the general ocean earthquakes) and tsunami buoy systems with circulation models. bottom pressure recorders (BPRs) and tide In order to monitor the progress of tsunami gauges. Further, to enhance the inputs to ITEWC, waves, ESSO-INCOIS maintains 36 tide gauge ESSO-INCOIS deployed four tsunami buoys in stations in collaboration with Survey of India 2010, which together with three other tsunami (SoI), Dehradun from 2010 onwards (Fig. 4). buoys maintained by ESSO-NIOT from 2007 These data are used to understand long-term sea onwards, relay data in real time (Fig. 4). These level trends, as well as to validate storm surge high-precision buoy-BPR systems can detect even model outputs. Out of 36 stations, 21 stations are minor 1 cm vertical changes in the water level. equipped with radar, pressure and shaft encoder In addition, real-time data from nearly 50 other sensors with INSAT communication since 2010- buoys in the Pacific and Indian Ocean operated 2011 while 15 stations have been equipped with by other countries are also received at ITEWC and only radar sensors with GPRS since 2015-2016. made available online to assist decision-making. Both are received at ESSO-INCOIS in real-time. The Argo programme is a partnership between more than 30 nations under the Global Ocean large scale observing system Observing System (GOOS) to provide a three- The large-scale ocean observing system consists dimensional view of ocean temperature and

Fig. 1: Representation of observational activities at temporal and spatial scales

Coastal Regional Global

Centuries

Repeat Trans-Basin Sections Decadal Subsea observation Region Ship Time Inter- annual Ferry Series

Time Voluntary observing box ship data Gliders Remote sensing Seasonal Fisherman Moored Vessel Time Series Daily In network High frequency radars

6 Hourly 1 sq km Regional/10 sq km Ocean basin Globe Space

GeoGraphy and you . 2020 11 Digha Veraval

Versova Gopalpur

Vizag Fig. 2: Locations of Ratnagiri Wave Rider Buoy (WRBs) deployment Karwar Krishnapatnam along coast of India Port blair

Kozhikode Puduchery

Agatti Kottam Colachel

Seychelles

Okha Digha

Mumbai Gopalpur

Visakhapatnam Jaigarh Kakinada

Goa Fig. 3: Locations of coastal Nellore acoustic doppler current Udupi profiler (ADCP) network and Shelf moorings equatorial ADCP moorings Cuddalore along the Indian coast Slope moorings Kollam Equatorial moorings

Kanyakumari

Fig. 4: Locations of the network of tsunami buoys and tide gauges network

Tide gauge Tsunami buoy Subduction zone

12 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 salinity structure. India joined this programme in 2002, currently deploying 40 floats per year in the Indian Ocean, with one-third of the floats having the capability of measuring biogeochemical parameters, such as, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll and optical backscatter. Argo data provides an opportunity to examine basin-scale evolution of seasonal, intra-seasonal and inter-annual variability (Ravichandran et al. 2012) and also to document the ocean response during extreme weather events such as tropical cyclones, where ship-based measurements are not feasible (Girishkumar et al. 2019). Long-term Argo data are used to understand the effects of ocean on climate and also used to validate satellite measurements. As of November 2019, the Indian contribution stands at 482 floats including 53 bio-Argo floats (Fig. 5). Argo datasets help us understand the variability of biogeochemical parameters such as oxygen minimum zone, chlorophyll, phytoplankton community composition, carbon and nutrient export and modulation of these parameters with respect to physical and dynamical forcing. At present, Argo temperature and salinity profiles are extensively used for providing initial conditions to coupled models for monsoon prediction. In collaboration with CSIR-NIO, ESSO- INCOIS is maintaining three XBT/XCTD transects along Chennai-Port Blair, Port Blair- Kolkata and Kochi-Lakshadweep in the northern part of the Indian Ocean (Fig. 6). The data from XBT/XCTD matches significantly with satellite measurements and is also used to estimate climatology of geostrophic currents. A large amount of freshwater flux due to precipitation and river discharge in the northern Bay of Bengal (BoB) drives the near surface hydrographic structure and makes it unique. To understand the factors that modulate the evolution of sea surface temperature (SST) and its underlying dynamics, ESSO-INCOIS placed a The microstructure profiler is an cone-head mooring with high vertical resolution instrument designed to measure around 18oN, 89oE during 2009-2013. This was velocity shear and temperature variability on vertical scales of however, lost in 2013 due to fishing vandalism. In less than a millimetre and simul- 2019, ESSO-INCOIS deployed a flux mooring with taneously record other physical a direct covariance flux system (DCFS) near 18oN, parameters of the ocean. The 89oE, which is the first of its kind in the northern profiler is constructed to descend y: Author y: BoB. The INCOIS-flux mooring is also equipped Es to depths as far as 2000 m. with near-surface meteorological sensors and sub- surface temperature, salinity and current sensors Photo Court Photo to capture the vertical hydrographic structure

GeoGraphy and you . 2020 13 with high vertical resolution. The data from Fig. 5: Spatial distribution of core Argo (red) and bio DCFS will provide an opportunity to examine the Argo (green) profiles in the Indian Ocean existing parameterisation algorithm which used to estimate latent, sensible heat and momentum fluxes in the BoB region. Thus, continuous time-series mooring measurements are used to understand air-sea interaction processes that modulates SST (Thangaprakash et al. 2016). In order to understand the dynamics of equatorial current system and its variability at different time scales (Sengupta et al. 2001), ESSO-INCOIS in collaboration with CSIR-NIO maintains equatorial current meter-mooring network, which consisted of seven ADCP moorings initially, later reduced to two due to Fig. 6: Spatial distribution of XBT (red), XCTD (blue) logistical issues. The two equatorial current and coastal Sea Surface Salinity (black) profiles meter moorings and one coastal ADCP collected during the reporting period under XBT programme mooring along 77oE provides an opportunity to document heat and salt exchange between the Arabian Sea (AS) and the BoB. Each mooring consists of two 75 kHz ADCPs to measure currents between 50-850 m depths. ESSO-INCOIS in collaboration with CSIR- NIO deployed many surface drifters, which measure SST and surface atmospheric pressure in a targeted coverage of one buoy per 5o grid in the Indian Ocean. Drifter’s data are used for the validation of satellite measurements and also used to document large scale surface current patterns. Moreover, long-term data (1991-till now) are Coastal stations used to study the variability of the upper ocean Expendable bathythermograph (XBT) currents and their relationship to meteorological Expendable conductivity temperature and depth (XCTD) forcing. Drifters with barometric pressure sensors can provide reasonable coverage of mean sea Fig. 7: AWSs installed onboard MFV Blue level pressure in the global ocean and can be Fin, Directorate of Fisheries, Lakshadweep (left) and RV Ratnakar, Geological Survey assimilated in numerical weather prediction of India (right); Fig. 8: Schematic diagram of (NWP) models. (left) Vertical Microstructure Profiler (VMP); Similar to land-based AWS to measure (right) underway CTD (uCTD). ESSO-INCOIS meteorological variables, ESSO-INCOIS installed conducted various cruises to record the 34 AWS’s onboard research and survey ships vertical distribution of small-scale turbulent mixing in the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea. of various Indian institutes and organisations. The AWS systems on these ships provide meteorological measurements wherever they travel, both in the open ocean and along the coast. low capability of resolving small-scale physical These data are also helpful for validation of various processes such as sub-mesoscale processes (typical model outputs and satellite parameters (Fig. 7). length scale 0.1 to 10 km) and small scale vertical mixing processes (in cm scale). These small-scale Mesoscale and sub-Mesoscale processes play a significant role to determine observing systems the hydrographic structure of the ocean and In-situ observational networks provide useful data need to be better understood. These small-scale to understand synoptic scale variability, but have processes are incorporated in the ocean models as

14 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 The Lagrangian float, named after the famous French mathematician Lagrange, is a type of autonomous underwater vehicle. Lagrangian The floats can be programmed to record and transmit various kinds of data.

7

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500m Depth 1000m Start payout Upload

Recover

2000m Stop payout Stop winch

GeoGraphy and you . 2020 15 Fig. 9: Schematic diagram of (left) Lagrangian float; (right) seaglider Two-way communication measurements of ocean

Ocean current measurement 10m Deep Temperature dive and salinity profiling 300m Parking depth Temperature and salinity 700m profiling 1000m

The seaglider is an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) that can perform a hydrographic survey in a pre-prescribed path in the ocean.

a parameterisation scheme—based on the sparse interactions with large scale oceanic systems data collected in different parts of the global ocean (Fig. 8). at different timescales. In order to understand The seaglider is an autonomous underwater these processes and to validate the performance vehicle (AUV) that can perform a hydrographic of small scale mixing parameterisation schemes, survey in a pre-prescribed path in the ocean. It ESSO-INCOIS uses advanced technological moves in a saw-tooth pattern by changing its sophisticated instruments such as seagliders, buoyancy and provides spatial and temporal underway CTD (uCTD), Lagrangian float and physical (temperature, salinity, PAR) and vertical microstructure profiler (VMP). This aids biological (chlorophyll, backscatter, dissolved the understanding of small-scale processes and oxygen, coloured dissolved organic matter)

16 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 parameter measurements while being piloted and efforts are underway to transmit these from ESSO-INCOIS (Fig. 9). These AUV’s are data in real time to INCOIS. Besides, it is also helpful even during extreme weather conditions proposed to expand the WAMAN network to and provide subsurface data that are useful nearby Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early for ocean data assimilation and validation Warning System (RIMES) countries and equip of models. The combination of mooring and the areas with a few more wave sensors in the seaglider experiments can provide more insights open ocean mooring. Further, it is proposed to into the evolution of SST and SSS and helps the increase the number of deployment of Argo floats understanding of different processes that control to 50 in a year. Thus significant efforts are being the variability of mixed layer heat and salt budgets made by ESSO-INCOIS to scale up and sustain with reasonable accuracy. The Lagrangian float and enhance networks in the upcoming decades is another type of AUV which can measure both to support operational ocean state forecasts physical and biological variables by accurately and services. following the 3D motion of water parcels within desired water column depth (Fig. 8). uCTDs are Acknowledgements: We sincerely thank Secretary, advanced instruments used to measure ocean MoES, Government of India and Director, INCOIS for parameters while the ship is in motion and are cost their constant support and encouragement towards the effective compared to regular CTD measurements development of OON. We also thank our collaborating using rosettes, which need the ship to remain institutes—ESSO-NIOT, CSIR-NIO, SoI and all stationary (Fig. 9). our INCOIS colleagues for their consistent support The key process in the global ocean and cooperation for the development and successful circulations is the vertical turbulent mixing establishment of OON. processes which affect the transport of heat, salt and biogeochemical substances such as references carbon and nutrients. The basic understanding Girishkumar M. S., V. P. Thangaprakash, T. V. S. of the variation of vertical turbulent mixing U. Bhaskar, K. Suprit and N. SureshKumar. with different background stratification is 2019. Quantifying Tropical Cyclone's Effect on fundamental to document oceanic mixing The Biogeochemical Processes Using Profiling characteristics. ESSO-INCOIS conducted various Float Observations in The Bay of Bengal, JGR such cruises to record the vertical distribution of Oceans, 124: 1945-1963. Available at: https://doi. small-scale turbulent mixing in the BoB and the org/10.1029/2017JC013629 AS. The higher vertical resolution of temperature, Ravichandran M., M. S. Girishkumar and S. Riser. salinity and shear (~512 Hz) from VMP can 2012. Observed Variability of Chlorophyll‐a Using provide an excellent opportunity to document the Argo Profiling Floats in The Southeastern Arabian differences in the mixing characteristics between Sea, Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic these two basins. Research Papers, 65: 15–25. Available at: https://doi. org/10.1016/j.dsr.2012.03.003 Way Forward Sengupta D., R. Senan and B. N. Goswami. 2001. In addition to the operational needs, the data Origin of Intraseasonal Variability of Circulation collected from the OON network also enhances in The Tropical Central Indian Ocean, Geophysical our knowledge of the role of the Indian Ocean Research Letters, 28: 1267-1270. Available at: in global weather and climate. Moreover, https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/ long-term observations from these systems pdf/10.1029/2000GL012251 can provide an opportunity to understand the Thangaprakash V. P., K. Suprit, N. S. Kumar, D. evaluation of oceanographic parameters in Chaudhuri and K. Dinesh. 2016. What Controls the global warming scenario and its impact on Seasonal Evolution of Sea Surface Temperature regional and global weather. It is thus proposed in The Bay of Bengal? Mixed Layer Heat Budget to establish a GPS (GNSS) enabled 15 tide gauges Analysis Using Moored Buoy Observations in future which can provide information about Along 90°E, Oceanography, 29(2): 202–213. land displacement and accurate estimation Available at: https://tos.org/oceanography/article/ of magnitude of the earthquakes. At present, what-controls-seasonal-evolution-of-sea-surface- XBT data collected is available in delayed mode temperature-in-the-bay-of-b

GeoGraphy and you . 2020 17  INCOIS | ParameterISINg

The ocean state forecast services from ESSO-INCOIS are accurate, timely forecasts and advisories that is supported by a robust oceanic in-situ instrumentation and satellite observations as well as state-of-the-art computational facilities with multi-model simulations.

18 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 By T M Balakrishnan Nair, R Harikumar, K Srinivas, M Anuradha, K Kaviyazhahu, R Kumari & Y Grover Ocean State Forecast Services for the Maritime Community

The authors are Group Head, Scientist in charge (Ocean State Forecast Services), Scientist in charge (Ocean State Forecast Lab), Project Scientist, Project Assistant, Scientific Assistant and Project Assistant, respectively, at the Ocean Information and Forecast Service Group (ISG), ESSO-INCOIS, Hyderabad. [email protected]. The article should be cited as Nair T.M. Balakrishnan, Harikumar R. Srinivas K,. Anuradha M., Kaviyazhahu K., Kumari Rakhi and Grover Y., 2020. Ocean State Forecast Services for the Maritime Community, Geography and You, 20(6-7): 18-25 Photo Courtesy: Author Courtesy: Photo

GeoGraphy and you . 2020 19 India is the only country in the northern Indian ocean that has a fully operational ocean state forecast (osF) services. this supports millions of users for smooth operations at sea, for both offshore and nearshore activities. the osF services from esso-INCoIs are of a high global standard with accurate, timely forecasts and advisories. they are supported by a robust in-situ and satellite observations as well as state-of-the-art computational facilities with multi-model simulations. the services incorporate the latest information and communication technology (ICt) tools for building a well-defined dissemination system. esso-INCoIs has modulated its general forecasts to build impact-based forecasts based on user feedback. Its recent service caters to fishing boats far out at sea with systems enabled through NAVigation with Indian Constellation (NAVIC) and the Gagan enabled Mariner's Instrument for Navigation and Information (GeMINI). esso-INCoIs also plays an active role in supporting the rising needs of ushering in the blue economy of the region.

ndia is endowed with a long coastline of of its member countries are advised to convert/ over 7500 km, including the Andaman, upgrade their general forecast and warning Nicobar and Lakshadweep Islands. The services to multi-hazard impact-based ones. The nation's marine activities are diverse and latest update of WMO manual (WMO 2018) include artisanal/mechanised fishing, puts forward a guideline that ‘warning should shipping activities, coastal tourism, oil/natural be provided for…unusual and hazardous sea-ice Igas/mineral exploration, defence interests and conditions and dangerous sea states’. In this marine research. Prior information on the sea context and considering that India's tropical coasts state is vital not only for those who venture out are prone to a multitude of hazards, INCOIS is to sea but also for those at the seashore. Users transforming its forecasts to 'identify dangerous can take informed decisions based on forecasts, seas' and capture future high sea conditions alerts, warnings and issued advisories. Economic through short-term forecasts and specialised benefits too are accrued to users which helps warnings/alerts (Table 1 and 2). strengthen India's goals towards achieving the blue economy. User feedback and evaluations Theus ers suggest that the forecasts are 80 per cent accurate ESSO-INCOIS service users include fishing and and that they also reach most end users on time, coastal populations, maritime boards, the Indian which is crucial for saving life and property. The Navy and Coast Guard, shipping and energy quality management system of the OSF services of sectors, hydrocarbon industries, port authorities, ESSO-INCOIS has been conferred with the ISO pollution control boards, disaster management 9001:2008 certification in 2014. agencies, NGOs and research organisations. India has been providing ocean state forecasts During recent times, the demand for these to users since 2007 and has subsequently extended services has greatly increased (Fig. 1). these services to other countries. Numerous Fishing Sector: The fishing sector is the primary articles on these multiple models as well as their user and in the backdrop of their marginalised validations have been published (Sabique et al. socio-economic condition, ocean information 2012; Nair et al. 2013; Nair et al. 2014). However, services benefit them immensely. They are there is a consensus that it is no longer sufficient provided with potential fishing zone advisories to provide just an accurate and timely weather that assist them in locating an identified zone and forecast/warning—rather there is now a demand obtaining a good catch. This is a regular service for ‘impact-based’ information (WMO 2015). except for the fishing ban periods, around 60 days As per the World Meteorological Organisation's in a year. Also, in case of adverse ocean conditions (WMO) manual, all weather forecasting centres the OSF wing issues a joint bulletin with the India

20 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 Meteorological Department (IMD) that warns Fig. 1. Number of users (in thousands) availing ocean fisherfolk, requesting them to avoid fishing at sea. state forecast services from ESSO- INCOIS Shipping Sector: Numerous ports, both major 679 and minor, near large coastal cities contribute greatly to its economic growth. For the efficient Active fishermen: 900 thousand (approx) operation of these ports, a critical factor is to 402 advance information on sea state parameters— 309 locally generated wind waves, remotely forced 223 swell waves, currents, winds and tides and 117 warnings on cyclones and other extreme weather 74 82 events. The smooth entry and exit of vessels of all 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-172017-18 2018-19 sizes at a port may be ensured in advance by the Jan 2019 use of this information. Also, since many ports cannot handle huge oil tankers, offshore port Table 1: The wave, OGCM, oil spill, SARAT and tidal activities like single point mooring operations—a models being run operationally loading buoy anchored offshore that serves as Spatial Resolution an interconnect point for large tankers to load or Numerical Models offload products to shore-based facilities—are (in degrees) important. OSF services support these operations Wave Models by forecasting sea conditions at these point Spectral Wave Model 1.000o to 0.070o locations. Furthermore, daily OSF updates along Multi-grid WAVEWATCH III model 1.000o to 0.050o with meteorological data and warnings are (MWW3) provided on standard shipping routes usually Simulating WAves Nearshore model 0.002o x 0.002o used by passenger ships—Chennai-Port Blair and (SWAN) Kolkata-Port Blair. Ocean General Circulation Models (OGCM) Unlike fishing operations that are suspended Regional Ocean Modeling System 0.125o x 0.125o for short periods, shipping and port activities are (ROMS) continuous even during periods of foul weather Global Ocean Data Assimilation System up to maximum 0.25o (southwest monsoon season—June to September). (GODAS) Safe transit during such times remains important HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model up to maximum 0.06o considering that coastal shipping remains a (HYCOM) preferable route for cargo traffic as modes like air Online Oil Spill Advisory (OOSA) and road cannot handle the volumes involved. The General NOAA Oil Modeling turnaround time of ships in ports may decrease --- Environment (GNOME) with OSF services and added to modernised ports through India’s ambitious Sagar Mala project, will Search And Rescue Aid Tool (SARAT) result in a leap forward. Leeway Model --- Hydrocarbon and Mineral Exploration: The Tide coastal seas around India are being actively Tidal Analysis Software Kit 2000 --- explored for oil and natural gas. Installations of (TASK) - 2000 new platforms and deployment of rigs at planned locations require long term observational and forecasted data on extreme values of winds, waves, Corporation (ONGC ) is now better geared to plan currents and storm surge related factors. For oil logistics and marine operations. rig operations, critical parameters are the surface Defence Sector: The Indian Navy, Indian Coast and subsurface currents, which if intense can Guard and the Coastal Security Police patrol cause hardship while deploying risers and flow waters to guard against unlawful and enemy lines that carry hydrocarbons to the surface from activity within the exclusive economic zone well heads. Earlier, such issues caused financial (EEZ). They require OSF for smooth operations losses for rig operators along the east coast, where of their fleets, with ships of varying dimensions eddies are common. At present, however, with including subsurface vehicles and specialised user-customised OSFs, Oil and Natural Gas beach landing craft and hovercraft. The Indian

GeoGraphy and you . 2020 21 Table 2: Services of the ocean state forecast wing

Regular Forecast Services Early Warning Services Customised Products for Blue Economy sector

Coastal forecast High wave/swell alert/warning Search and Rescue Aid Tool (SARAT)*

Location specific forecast INCOIS-IMD Joint bulletins during Online Oil spill Advisory system (OOSA)* depression/cyclones

Tropical Cyclone Heat Potential Kallakadal warning—coastal Port and Harbour Information System flooding due to swell surge

Predicted astronomical tide Kondalkattu warning—Location Forecast along ship routes specificforecast on high wind waves

Regional forecast Tidal flood advisory—Perigean/ Webmap Services Proxigean

Forecast for the Islands Small Craft Advisory# Navy Specific Forecasts

Forecast for neighbouring and other Inland Vessel Limits (IVL), Forecast for countries —Sri Lanka, Seychelles, Maritime Boards Maldives, Mozambique, Madagascar and Comoros

Global forecast products Oil industry specific forecast and analysis products

* These also come under emergency services; #These are eventually operationalised

Coast Guard is additionally responsible for ● Height, direction and period—both wind and marine search and rescue operations, in case of swell waves; ● Wind speed and direction; ● Sea any untoward incident. They are also mandated surface currents; ● Sea surface temperature; to operate the gear that helps control oil spill ● Mixed layer depth of the well mixed upper layer during ship accidents. Keeping the specifics of the sea; ● Depth of the 20o C isotherm; in mind, ESSO-INCOIS has developed two ● Astronomical tides; ● OOSA parameters, and customised services—Search and Rescue Aid ● SARAT parameters. Tool (SARAT) and the Online Oil-Spill Advisory (OOSA) system. SARAT provides a probable operational Models used for osF search area for missing persons/objects at sea. The Forecasts are generated by a suite of state-of-the- ESSO-INCOIS has been actively disseminating art numerical models (Table 1), which are set up advisories that track oil spill trajectories since and finetuned to simulate and predict accurately. 2014 to the Indian Coast Guard, port authorities, Atmospheric estimations from different maritime boards and the pollution control meteorological forecasting agencies—ESSO- boards. The OOSA system was operationalised National Centre for Medium Range Weather in 2014 using the General NOAA Oil Modeling Forecasting and European Centre for Medium- Environment (GNOME). Range Weather Forecasts—are used too. Global and regional forecasts differ mainly in their model Thepa rameters Forecasted domains, spatial and temporal resolution and the The OSF system at ESSO-INCOIS is capable of extent of validations carried out. Wave models are predicting surface and subsurface features of the set up using 'multiple grids' with a fine resolution Indian Ocean reasonably well—5 to 7 days in for a specified coastal area and a coarse resolution advance presently, at 3-6 hour intervals. For these in the open ocean region. forecasts, ocean general circulation models are interfaced by atmospheric parameters—surface osF services by esso-inCois wind speed, specific humidity, surface air Categorised as regular and general services, the temperature, precipitation and shortwave and OSF provides customised services, impact-based long wave radiation and bathymetry. Parameters forecast, advisory and warning services and routinely forecasted are listed below: experimental forecast services (Table 2). Forecasts

22 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 Fig. 2: Validation of the wave heights along the west coast of India 2016 Observation Simulation 4 (a) Versova 3 Bias = 0.11 m 2 RMSE = 0.25 m SI = 22 per cent 1 R = 0.90 0 N = 1500 JJASOND J 2014 4 (b) Ratnagiri Bias = 0.06 m 3 RMSE = 0.27 m 2 SI = 23 per cent 1 R = 0.95 N = 2699 0 J FM A M JJ A SO ND 8

Significant wave height (m) 2014 (c) AD06 (AS met-ocean buoy) Bias = 0.02 m 6 RMSE = 0.45 m 4 SI = 26 per cent R = 0.95 2 N = 2748 0 J FM A M J J A SO ND Bias - Statistical bias, difference between expected SI - Scatter Index. A smaller scatter index value means value and true value of the parameter being better forecasts. estimated. R - Correlation coefficient. RMSE - Root mean square error. N - Number of data sets used are available separately for the Arabian Sea, Bay cyclone—April 27 to May 4, 2019 and its track is of Bengal, North Indian Ocean, South Indian shown figure 3. Ocean, Red Sea, Persian Gulf and South China The Indian coast often experiences large wave Sea. Further, ESSO- INCOIS provides detailed heights due to the swell generated in the South information for specific locations such as the Indian Ocean. ESSO-INCOIS successfully fish landing centres, small fishing harbours and forecasted one such swell surge event during commercial ports. April 21-22, 2018 along the west coast of India and Lakshadweep. Swell heights between 2 to 3 m were verification of Forecasts and advisories experienced during this major event that impacted For testing the accuracy and reliability of the from Kerala to the Maharashtra coast (Fig 4). products, satellite data and in-situ measurements, such as near shore wave rider buoys, deep sea Thedi ssemination buoys, ship borne wave height meters, automatic The primary dissemination mode for the OSF weather stations and other deep sea met-ocean is the ESSO-INCOIS website along with email, buoys are used for routine and extreme-event mobile phones and apps, TV, radio, social validation. To further enhance the quality of media and electronic display boards based on forecasting, ESSO-INCOIS plans to expand sophisticated information and communications the wave rider buoy network ensuring that technology (ICT) tools. Further, strong a minimum of two such buoys are deployed collaborations with NGOs and coastal research along each Indian coastal state, including the centres as well as universities, aid dissemination. island territories. It also proposes to increase In areas with no or poor electricity connectivity, deployments of ship-mounted automatic weather dissemination through manual display boards stations to collect data that can be assimilated (Sundarban region) and simple black boards at real time into the numerical models. Validation smaller fish landing centres is enabled. of the simulated significant wave height at few One significant achievement during recent west coast locations is presented in figure 2 which times is the transmission of warning messages shows significant agreement between observed through satellite communication to fishers far out and forecasted wave heights. The wave model at sea. This is being done by collaborating with simulated sizeable wave heights during the Fani Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for

GeoGraphy and you . 2020 23 Fig. 3: Distribution of the significant wave height (m) and the track of the cyclone during Cyclone Fani (April 27 to May 4, 2019) (02-May-2019 06:00 GMT) m 220N Digha 8 7.6 7.2 Gopalpur 6.8 BD08 180N Vizag 6.4 Kakinada 6 BD10 5.6 5.2 Krishnapatnam 140N BD13 4.8 BD11 4.4 Puducherry 4 3.6 100N 3.2 Tuticorin 2.8 2.4 BD14 2 60N 1.6 1.2 0.8 0.4 20N 0 780E 820E 860E 900E Significant wave height

Generated IMD - India Meteorological Department tracks ECMWF - European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts NCMRWF - National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting

Fig. 4: Peak wave period (s) evolution by the wave forecast models. The initial stage (a) when the system crossed Seychelles and (b) when it crossed the India west coast Time: APRIL 18, 2018 06:00 GMT (a) s Time: APRIL 22, 2018 00:30 GMT (b) s 20oN 20 20oN 20 18 18 16 16 0oN 0oN 14 14 12 12

20oS 10 20oS 10 8 8

Peak Wave Period (s) 6 6 40oS 40oS 4 4 2 2 60oS 0 60oS 0 10oE 60oE 90oE 120oE 10oE 60oE 90oE 120oE

24 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 The ocean state forecast (OSF) laboratory at ESSO-INCOIS provides customised forecast services. Forecasts are available separately for the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, North Indian Ocean, South Indian Ocean, Red Sea, Persian Gulf and South China Sea.

NAVigation with Indian Constellation (NAVIC) references and and Airports Authority of India (AAI) Nair T. M. B., P. Sirisha, K. G. Sandhya, K. Srinivas for Gagan Enabled Mariner's Instrument for and V. S. Kumar. 2013. Performance of the Navigation and Information (GEMINI). The latter Ocean State Forecast System at Indian National has a wider range and can transmit messages to Centre for Ocean Information Services, Current Africa and even to Australia more frequently than Science, 105(2): 175-181. Available at: https://bit. NAVIC. This is indeed a significant achievement ly/3eYcDXZ as transmitting warnings on cyclones, tsunamis Nair T. M. B., P. G. Remya, R. Harikumar, K. G. and potential fishing zones even 7 km away from Sandhya and P. Sirisha. 2014. Wave Forecasting the coast was challenging. and Monitoring During Very Severe Cyclone Phailin in The Bay of Bengal, Current Science, Feedback and Training 106(8): 1121-1125. Available at: https://bit. Training workshops are frequently conducted ly/2SbiQGd at INCOIS for a range of users. Feedbacks are Sabique L., K. Annapurnaiah, T. M. B. Nair and collected routinely through user interaction K. Srinivas. 2012. Contribution of Southern meetings, workshops or during exhibitions held at Indian Ocean Swells on The Wave Heights in coastal locations. Active steps are taken to improve The Northern Indian Ocean - A modeling Study, the quality of forecast and dissemination using a Ocean Engineering, 43: 113-120. Available at: need based approach, as user feedback is critical to https://bit.ly/3aFICJf ensure the last mile connectivity. World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). 2015. WMO Guidelines on Multi-hazard Way Forward Impact-based Forecast and Warning Services: OSF services are continually being improved World Meteorological Organisation, Geneva: based on the need for a high level of accuracy. Switzerland. Available at: https://bit.ly/2xQCBfD New services are to be generated to cater to specific World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). 2018. user-types. ESSO-INCOIS is providing highly Manual on Marine Meteorological Services: specialised consultancy services to the shipping Volume I-Global Aspects: Annex VI to The WMO industry and energy sector which along with its Technical Regulations: World Meteorological comprehensive suite of services will boost the Organisation, Geneva: Switzerland. Available at: region’s blue economy. https://bit.ly/3aKfPDy

GeoGraphy and you . 2020 25  INCOIS | ParameterISINg

The Ocean State Forecast Service, which is one of the flagship services of ESSO-INCOIS, uses a suite of state-of-the art numerical ocean circulation and wind-wave models to generate necessary forecasts and advisories on the state of the oceans for the benefit of a large spectrum of users.

26 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 By Francis P A Elements of Numerical Ocean Modelling

Numerical ocean models are essentially the mathematical representation of the physical processes that govern the state of the ocean. They are extensively used in the field of oceanography to analyse and predict the behaviour of the ocean. Powerful computers are used to integrate these models to get the values of the ‘state variables’ at desired spatial/temporal intervals. This article takes a close look at the core elements of the numerical ocean modelling that serves as a virtual diving gear to delve into the unfathomable depths of the enigmatic marine world that has captured the imagination of man since time immemorial.

The author is Scientist F and Head, Ocean Modelling and Data Assimilation Group at Earth System Sciences sy: Pixabay Organisation-Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (ESSO-INCOIS). [email protected]. Te in. The article should be cited as Francis P. A., 2020. Elements of Numerical Ocean Modelling, Geography Cour and You, 20(6-7): 26-31 Pho To

GeoGraphy and you . 2020 27 ceans, which cover about two third the Indian Ocean (Saji et al. 1999; Webster et al. of the globe, play an important 1999). While many ocean processes, including the role in regulating the climate and temperature distribution and variation in ocean weather of the earth, making the currents, were discovered by the careful analysis planet habitable for all life forms. of relatively sparse observations of different In keeping with the world’s dependence on the oceanographic parameters, prediction of these oceansO for food, commerce, transport of goods, features were not possible until the physics that energy, minerals and medicines, ocean processes drives these processes was understood and was and their predictions have become areas of intense represented in mathematical forms. Efforts in this research for ‘the ease of doing business’ in the direction led to the development of numerical maritime environment. Important processes that ocean models. we observe in the oceans include wind-driven Numerical ocean modelling is a relatively surface waves or swells, tides, storm surges, new, but fast emerging branch of oceanography. currents and variability in temperature, salinity In such modelling, the laws which govern the and surface elevation. One of the most important state of the ocean are expressed in mathematical developments in the field of ocean sciences in form after applying certain approximations and the last century was the discovery of El Nino and assumptions and solved numerically, most often Southern Oscillation (ENSO)—underscoring the using powerful computers. Scientists, Kirk Bryan variation in sea surface temperature (SST) and and Michael D Cox from Princeton University associated atmospheric pressure in the eastern laid the foundation of ocean modelling (Bryan and western tropical Pacific Ocean. Later found and Cox 1967). The Cox model is considered to be to have a significant influence not only on the the first numerical ocean modelling of the Indian tropical climate, but also on the variation in the Ocean (Cox 1970). M A Cane and his collaborators weather and climate in the extra tropics, ENSO successfully used a numerical ocean model alone explains about 30 per cent of the variability developed by them to predict the evolution of of the mighty Indian summer monsoon rainfall, the El Nino event of 1986-1987 (Cane et al. 1986). which is the lifeline of billions who live in south The present day models are complex enough to and southeast Asia (Surendran et al. 2015). The account for most of the observed features such as discovery of the Indian Ocean Dipole in the the variation in currents, waves, temperature and late 90s revived the oceanographic research in salinity with fairly good accuracy. Depending on

Fig. 1: The cross-shore structure of along-shore currents (left) and the pattern of surface currents off the coast of Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu on December 3, 2013 as simulated by the HOOFS configuration (right) 400 14.0oN 400 14.0oN 800

1200 13.0oN

Depth (m) 1600 12.0oN 2000

2400 11.0oN

2800 10.0oN 10 30 50 70 90 110 130 150 79.0oE 80.0oE 81.0oE 82.0oE 83.0oE

-40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 Velocity (cm-1)

28 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 the type of ocean models, they can be used either to design models with any grid resolution, to understand certain oceanographic processes practical implementation of such extremely or to predict the future state of the ocean. Popular high resolution models for simulating the numerical ocean models used presently include general circulation features of even the Indian Princeton Ocean Model (POM); Modular Ocean Ocean (much smaller than the Atlantic or the Model (MOM); Regional Ocean Modelling Pacific) is a challenge due to numerical and System (ROMS); MIT Ocean General Circulation computational limitations. Hence, one way to Model (MITgcm); Hybrid Coordinate Ocean represent these unaccounted for processes in Model (HYCOM), and Nucleus of European the ocean models is by explicitly incorporating Modelling of Ocean (NEMO). While all these the effects of such processes by way of physical models describe more or less the same physical parameterisation. This is achieved by deriving processes in the oceans, they differ mainly in the empirical relationships between the ‘quantities way they are descretised in horizontal and vertical or the processes’ to be parameterised and the directions. There are also variations in the way the known environmental factors which influence models take care of certain unaccounted physical these processes. The empirical relationships processes. A good understanding of these physical are derived with a set of observations collected processes in the ocean is essential for designing a through specially designed campaigns. suitable numerical ocean model. One of the most important processes that is Interaction between the atmosphere and the parameterised in most of the ocean circulation underlying ocean takes place close to the ocean models is the vertical mixing of properties surface. In general, the atmosphere over the (Large et al. 1994). ocean provides momentum, heat and freshwater The momentum and the heat received by the to the ocean, while ocean supplies moisture and ocean surface gets further transferred into its heat back into the atmosphere. These processes, subsurface layers through various processes with commonly known as the air-sea interactions, are scale ranging from a few centimetres to hundreds continuous, but vary considerably in terms of time of kilometres. The upper few tens of meters of and space. Apart from these external processes, water, generally known as the surface mixed other forces impacting the ocean such as pressure layer, is the most dynamic part of any ocean as it gradient, coriolis force, friction/viscous forces, and interacts directly with the overlying atmosphere. gravitational force also influence the movement of Physical properties of the water remain more water and hence the distribution of oceanographic or less homogeneous within the coalesced layer parameters. For simplicity, some processes which due to the intermingling that takes place if the are not important are neglected while modelling water in the upper ocean is denser than that the ocean circulation. below it and also if there is vertical shear in the Mathematical representation of the physical horizontal flow. Several other processes such as processes are called the governing equations. In entrainment, horizontal and vertical advection of an numerical ocean model, the simplified form water with different properties, can also result in of the governing equations are represented in an this natural phenomenon. While some of these appropriate coordinate system, before solving processes are implicitly resolved in the ocean them. In general, the ocean under consideration is models, processes such as diffusion, vertical shear divided into ‘three dimensional grids’ of suitable or mixing associated with the internal waves sizes. The governing equations, after applying are not well represented in the models. Mixing suitable approximations/assumptions and parameterisation schemes are used in ocean transformed into a suitable coordinate system models to account for these ‘unresolved’ processes. are called the ‘primitive equations’. Most of the The quality of the solutions from an ocean numerical ocean models resolve a set of primitive model depends on the initial conditions equations to estimate the ‘ocean state variables’ provided to force the model such as the initial One of the major challenges in ocean values of parameters like temperature, salinity, modelling is the representation of certain currents, and sea level anomaly and the processes which cannot be resolved explicitly boundary conditions (the values of the important in the model. While theoretically, it is possible oceanographic parameters at lateral sides which

Geography and You . 2020 29 are open to other oceans). A common method are provided to the ocean model from the to prepare accurate initial/boundary conditions simulations of atmospheric models or from is by blending the relatively sparse and uneven the objectively analysed observations. Surface ocean observations with the numerical models. wind data derived from ‘scatterometer sensors’ This is how oceanographers undertake data on a few satellites, are nowadays used to assimilation—the process of injecting data formulate ocean models. Once an ocean model into an numerical ocean model to minimise is initialised, depending upon the region of the difference between the observed state and interest and dimension of the model domain, the the model state without violating the dynamic model may take a few days to hundreds of years balance between the variables. Ultimately, this to stabilise or come to a steady state. The time assimilation produces ‘ocean analysis’, which required for a particular model setup to stabilise is extensively used in oceanographic research and provide reliable simulations is commonly as well as for initialising ocean forecast models. referred to as ‘spin up time’. Subsequently, A large fraction of surface observations getting the model can be integrated with realistic assimilated into ocean models comes from the atmospheric forcing or boundary conditions to satellite based observations of SST and sea surface produce accurate simulations or forecasts. height anomalies. Unlike the ocean observations, which are The source of data of the subsurface layers of relatively sparse and not evenly distributed, ocean is the Argo floats, which are autonomous numerical ocean circulation models can provide instruments capable of diving to a predefined the values of state variables at uniform intervals depth in the ocean and coming back to near in space and time. Hence the simulations from surface by changing their buoyancy. These floats ocean models are very useful for studying the measure important oceanographic parameters ocean processes such as the vertical or horizontal such as temperature, salinity, and biogeochemical movement of oceanic water or its properties, parameters, during their endeavour. In mixing of these properties, evolution of El addition to Argo floats, moored ocean buoys, Nino or La Nina or Indian Ocean dipole in data fitted with sensors to measure oceanographic void regions or for the studies in which data at parameters, surface drifters, and expendable regular intervals are required. For instance, the bathythermographs (XBTs), also provide valuable simulation of coastal currents by a very high- data for assimilating into the ocean models. resolution model for the Bay of Bengal, shown Most of these observation platforms transmit in Figure 1 was used to describe the structure data to the receiving stations (ground stations) and dynamics of undercurrents off the coast of through satellites in near real time, so that they get Cuddalore (Francis et al. 2020). In addition, the integrated into the ocean models. ocean models can be used to study the changes The ocean-atmosphere interface at the surface in certain ‘ocean/atmosphere parameters by of the ocean is constantly influenced by the carrying out specific experiments (‘sensitivity atmosphere above it. Hence, the accuracy of experiments’). Since the primitive equations on the ocean model simulations, particularly in which the models are based on are ‘prognostic’, the upper few tens of meters, heavily depends these can also be used for making predictions of on these ‘atmospheric forcings’ or surface the state variables. boundary conditions. The most important Indian National Centre for Ocean Information surface boundary condition is the stress Services (INCOIS), one of the premier institutes in caused by surface winds. Parameters such the world in the field of operational oceanography, as air temperature and humidity along with makes extensive use of numerical ocean models the net shortwave and longwave radiation for generating ocean analysis/reanalysis and determine the exchange of heat fluxes between forecasts. Major products based on numerical ocean surface and the overlying atmosphere ocean models provided by its flagship programme (Fairall et al. 1996). Similarly, evaporation ‘Ocean State Forecast’ include the short term and precipitation determine the amount of forecasts of waves, currents, tides and other freshwater flux which goes into the oceans. oceanographic parameters such as SST, and mixed In general, these ‘atmospheric’ forcing fields layer depth. Some value added services provided

30 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 by ESSO-INCOIS, such as oil spill trajectory Experimental Forecasts of El Niño, Nature, prediction system, search and rescue aid tool, and 115(10): 2262-2278. Available at: https://www. experimental forecasts of potential fishing zones, nature.com/articles/321827a0 also make use of the forecasts of oceanographic Cox M. D. 1970. A Mathematical Model of parameters from the High-resolution Operational The Indian Ocean, Deep Sea Research and Ocean Forecast and reanalysis System (HOOFS) Oceanographic Abstracts, 17(1): 47-75. Available developed in-house. HOOFS comprises a at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ hierarchy of data assimilated configurations of the article/abs/pii/0011747170900872 ocean model called Regional Ocean Modelling Fairall C.W., E.F. Bradley, D.P. Rogers, J.B. Edson System (ROMS). The ocean analysis generated and G.S. Young. 1996. Bulk Parameterization by ESSO-INCOIS, based on the modular of Air-Sea Fluxes for Tropical Ocean Global ocean model with data assimilation, known as Atmosphere Coupled-Ocean Atmosphere INCOIS-GODAS, is being utilised by the India Response Experiment, Journal of Geophysical Meteorological Department (IMD) for the Research, 101(C2): 3747–3764. Available at: seasonal and extended range forecasts of Indian https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/ summer monsoon rainfall. pdf/10.1029/95JC03205 Francis P.A., A.K. Jithin, A. Chatterjee, A. Way Forward Mukherjee, D. Shankar et al. 2020. Structure Some of the challenges in improving the and Dynamics of Undercurrents in The accuracy of numerical ocean models are the Western Boundary Current of The Bay of improvements needed in the parameterisations Bengal, Ocean Dynamics, 70: 387–404. Available of the unaccounted physical processes and the at:https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2 availability of accurate atmospheric parameters Fs10236-019-01340-9 (Kemper et al. 2019). Hence, oceanographers are Kemper B. F. A. Adcroft, C. W. Boning, E. P. increasing the field observations to understand Chassignet and E. Curchitser. 2019. Challenges and quantify the turbulent mixing processes and Prospects in Ocean Circulation Models, in interior oceans and the air-sea fluxes in the Frontiers in Marine Science. Available at: https:// outer interfaces so that they can be represented doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2019.00065 better in the ocean models. At the same time, Large W. G., J. C. McWilliams, S. C. Doney. 1994. oceanographers are also attempting to reduce Oceanic Vertical Mixing: A Review and A the computational resources by converting the Model with A Nonlocal Boundary Layer conventional models based on central processing Parameterization, Reviews of Geophysics, 32:363– unit (CPU) to graphics processing unit (GPU). 403. Available at: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary. The usage of artificial intelligence and machine wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/94RG01872 learning techniques are also being explored Saji N. H., B. N. Goswami, P. N. Vinayachandran to improve the predictions of different ocean- and T. Yamagata. 1999. A Dipole Mode in The atmosphere parameters (Bolton and Tropical Indian Ocean, Nature, 401: 360–363. Zanna 2019). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/43854 Surendran S., S. Gadgil, P. A. Francis, M. Rajeevan. References 2015. Prediction of Indian Rainfall During Bolton T. and L. Zanna. 2019. Applications of The Summer Monsoon Season on The Basis of Deep Learning to Ocean Data Inference and Links with Equatorial Pacific and Indian Ocean Subgrid Parameterization, Journal of Advances in Climate Indices. Environmental Research Letters, Modelling Earth Systems. Available at: https://doi. 10(9): 1-13. Available at: https://iopscience.iop. org/10.1029/2018MS001472 org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/10/9/094004/pdf Bryan K. and M. D. Cox. 1967. A Numerical Webster P. J., A. M. Moore, J. P. Loschnigg and R. Investigation of Ocean General R. Leben. 1999. Coupled Oceanic-Atmospheric Circulation, Tellus, 19: 54-80. Available Dynamics in The Indian Ocean During 1997– at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/ 98, Nature, 401: 356-360. Available at: https:// abs/10.1111/j.2153-3490.1967.tb01459.x www.nature.com/articles/43848 Cane M.A., S.E. Zebiak and S.C. Dolan. 1986.

GeoGraphy and you . 2020 31  INCOIS | ParameterISINg

Theoc ean data and information system (odis) was conceived at esso-inCois to overcome the difficul- ties in handling the heterogeneous data and its dissemination.

32 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 By R Venkat Shesu, T V S Udaya Bhaskar, E Pattabhi Rama Rao & S S C Shenoi OCEAN DATA & INFORMATION SYSTEM

a geographic information system (Gis) based application ocean data and information systems (odis) was designed, developed and implemented at esso-iNCois for easy dissemination of data and data products. it is an open source platform for publishing spatial data with interactive mapping applications on the web. MysQl serves as the backend database. this article presents storage, organisation details and data visualisations pertaining to oceanographic data. odis is set as an end-to-end system comprising acquisition of data from heterogeneous oceanographic platforms, processing and integration, quality controlling and disseminating for research and development.

t is well known that oceans play an integral in successfully planning and executing ocean role in the earth system including climate monitoring activities like the Bay of Bengal and weather. Ocean needs to be monitored Monsoon Experiment (BoB-MEX) and the continuously as it is vital for sustainable Arabian Sea Monsoon Experiment (AR-MEX). exploitation and utilisation of oceanic The Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) had resources. Accordingly, large amounts of data designated the ESSO-Indian National Centre Ipertaining to the surface and subsurface are for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) as the continuously measured by various autonomous nodal agency and the central repository of ocean instruments. Ocean monitoring activities have data in India. ESSO-INCOIS receives voluminous increased enormously owing to advancements data from the ocean observation systems both in in the technology and progress of ocean real time, near real time and offline from various observing programmes. India had taken lead heterogeneous in-situ platforms—moored buoys, _worldwide Ck tri

Pa The authors are Scientist E, Ocean Observations and Data Management Group (ODG); Senior Scientist and Head, Training and Programme Planning and Management Group (TPG); Senior Scientist and Head, ODG; and, Director; respectively at INCOIS. [email protected]. The article should be cited as Shesu R.V., T.V.S.U. Bhaskar, E.P.R. Rao

Photo Courtesy: Courtesy: Photo and S.S.C. Shenoi, 2020. Ocean Data and Information System, Geography and You, 20(6-7): 32-35

GeoGraphy and you . 2020 33 Fig. 1: The flow of heterogeneous in-situ data from different observational networks into the centralised database established at ESSO-INCOIS

Integrated Database

NetCDF, hdf, ASCII, Binary

INSAT, VSAT, FTP, E-mail, Offline

Drifting buoys Wave rider buoys Moored buoys Tide gauges Ship-mounted automatic weather Ocean ObservatiOn systems stations

Fig. 2: Snapshot of the main web GIS interface through which a user can visualise, query and extract the information of choice

Ocean Data and Information System

Language Switcher You are here: In-situ Data All Insitu Data Search English Search... Base Layer Main Menu Indian Ocean Login Form Overlays Home Moored Buoy In-situ Data Drifting Buoy User Name Drifting Buoy Track Moored Buoy Automatic Weather Station Drifting Buoy Automatic Weather Station Track XBT's Open Ocean Password Realtime Automatic Weather Stations XBT's Indian EEZ Wave Rider Buoy Current Meter Arrays Wave Rider Buoys Remember Me Coastal HF Radar Graticule Equatorial Current Meter Array Log in XBT Change your password? OR Argo Data Forgot your password? Tide Gauge Data Forgot your username? BPR Data All Insitu Data

Remote Sensing Data Live Access Server (LAC) QC Manuals

34 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 drifting buoys, expendable bathythermographs browser are sufficient to implement a simple (XBT), automatic weather stations (AWS) and web GIS, but MySQL is included to store and current meter arrays, among others (Fig. 1). The organise data received from heterogeneous nature of acquisition such as different sampling platforms. The data is stored in database tables intervals, sensor types, formats, fixed or drifting in a simple vector form, which can be directly nature of platforms, time series at a single point, loaded by the GIS engine. A snapshot of ODIS vertical profiles at different locations, spectral, set up at ESSO-INCOIS is shown in figure 2. dynamic and static variability makes these data heterogeneous. The data needs to be well integrated database management system organised, quality controlled and distributed in As per the data flow into and out of the system, real time to researchers from various scientific the MySQL database for ODIS is configured. Data organisations and students from universities. acquisition, data processing, quality checks and The Ocean Data and Information System data archival are the main processes in database (ODIS) was conceived at ESSO-INCOIS to management systems. ODIS is configured to push overcome the difficulties in handling the the data to FTP or send the data email based on the heterogeneous data and its dissemination. It was size of the data requested by the user. designed with capabilities for archiving, on the fly In-situ data is implemented in the Relational visualisation and seamless sharing of data from a Database Management System (RDBMS), single source. which includes both data as well as metadata and is updated on an operational basis which odis Framework is immediately available to the end users. This With the advancement in technology the real time updation helps in monitoring various traditional use of GIS was also found to be in-situ platforms—ship tracking and moored changing. Oceanographers over the years had buoys drifting from their position, through their own specialised system for analysing ODIS. A wide variety of functions for input, and displaying data. However, GIS possesses query, data retrieval, visual quality control all in-built capabilities to provide various and reporting are built into the RDBMS. The functions to support the complete management ODIS database design is flexible and capable of spatio-temporal data. ODIS adopted a of extending to new platforms as and when client-server architecture which can run the need arises. The database is based on either on a single computer or distributed on client/server architecture such that MySQL, multiple sets of computers. The system built located on a server PC and other applications at ESSO-INCOIS is composed of five major are located on different client PCs. Backup components—UMN MapServer, Apache database server is used to maintain replicas of HTTP Server + Apache Tomcat, MySQL, Web the original data and the master database is Browser, ChartDirector™. All these components continuously updated onto the MySQL as and are run in a Java programming environment, on when it is ingested with new data. Also the raw a Linux platform. The University of Minnesota data acquired from different heterogeneous (UMN) MapServer is an open source platform platforms are pushed to the backup FTP server. that serves the purpose of displaying and querying dynamic data spatially. The UMN Way Forward MapServer supports many Open Geospatial ODIS has successfully served all types of users— Consortium (OGC) web specifications, operational and R&D, since July 2010. It overcame including the Web Map Service (WMS), many problems faced with the traditional method non-transactional Web Feature Service (WFS) of handling flat files. ODIS fulfilled the goal of and Geography Markup Language (GML). For effective data management and set a benchmark achieving greater flexibility, all the components for providing powerful mapping and visualisation of ODIS are loosely coupled, which enable for oceanographic data. The system has achieved the developers to do experimental changes to its performance requirements in meeting the the ODIS system. The MapServer and a web demands of the ocean data user community.

GeoGraphy and you . 2020 35  INCOIS | ParameterISINg

The digital ocean framework is supported by integrating data from diverse ocean observing systems. The data is converted into actionable insights using massive computational and visualisation power. Ann Photo Courtesy: Gerd Altm

36 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 By E Pattabhi Rama Rao, T V S Udaya Bhaskar, RV Shesu, S Kumar, N Srinivasa Rao & SSC Shenoi Digital

We are living in the digital era and data driven decisions with advanced analytics and visualisation features are becoming an integral part of all walks of life. In ocean sciences abundant marine meteorological and oceanographic data from a variety of ocean observing systems are fed into models to improve the quality of weather and ocean state forecasts. Well-organised data in an integrated environment will support the usage and help in better understanding of oceanographic processes. This article presents the development of Digital Ocean, a single platform that efficiently integrates heterogeneous ocean data and provides advanced visualisation and analysis to facilitate the improved understanding of oceans through a multi-disciplinary approach.

The authors are Senior Scientist and Head of Ocean Observations and Data Management Group (ODG); Senior Scientist and Head, Training, Programme Planning and Management Group; Scientist E-ODG; Scientist C-ODG, Scientist D-ODG; and, Director, respectively at Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS). [email protected]. The article should be cited as Rao E.P.R., T.V.S.U. Bhaskar, R.V. Shesu, S. Kumar, N.S. Rao and S.S.C. Shenoi, 2020. Digital Ocean, Geography and You, 20(6-7): 36-39

GeoGraphy and you . 2020 37 SSO-INCOIS has been providing Data Integration: The Digital Ocean platform ocean data services through the is fed by data generated by various programmes Ocean Data and Information System using diverse platforms and sensors. The data (ODIS) developed using open source received from in-situ platforms—Argo floats, technologies comprising a set of automatic weather stations, moored and drifting web-interfaces to search, visualise and fetch buoys, coastal high frequency (HF) radars, dataE generated from different observational tide gauges, wave rider buoys, expendable programmes in the Indian Ocean. However, ODIS bathythermograph (XBT), expendable has several limitations in integrating the data from conductivity temperature depth (XCTD) are diverse ocean observing systems (both in-situ integrated into a single database. Remote sensing and remote sensing) and ocean models, serving data from National Oceanic and Atmospheric the data in multiple formats, inter-comparison or Administration (NOAA) and meteorological validation of similar data in space and time, multi- operational (METOP) satellites and the data parameter and multi-dimensional visualisation generated from the ocean models run at ESSO- and animations. Thus Digital Ocean was INCOIS are also integrated into this module. Data developed to integrate all data from a variety of from new platforms/sensors is also integrated instruments and sensors on a single platform and as and where available. However, data from the to provide a web based analytical and visualisation exclusive economic zone are restricted on this facility for quick evaluation. platform and are served separately as per the data sharing guidelines. digital ocean Framework User Interface: The Digital Ocean environment Digital Ocean framework is a set of provides a default workspace with all active applications developed to organise and present platforms from the Indian ocean. Users, once heterogeneous oceanographic data interactively, registered, can create a workspace to query, fetch by adopting rapid advancements in geospatial selective data, interactively using visualisation technology. It facilitates an environment tools built within the application to arrive at a for integration of disparate data—in-situ, unique analysis. During events like cyclones the remote sensing and model data, providing a administrator can create special workspaces to single interface to fetch and visualise the data fetch all relevant data and provide instantaneous interactively (Fig. 1). Digital Ocean supports the views of various oceanographic and marine Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards meteorological parameters evolving during such such as Web Coverage Services (WCS), Web events, making the workspace readily available to Mapping Services (WMS) and Sensor Things the scientific community, avoiding multiple data API. The Digital Ocean components are requests by users. described below. Data Visualisation: Digital Ocean facilitates data

Fig. 1: Digital Ocean showing the in-situ ocean observing system

Data Store Info Search In-situ Argo Drifting Buoy HF Radar IRAWS Moored Buoy Tide Gauge Wave Rider Buoy

Remote Sensing

Model Data

Save Filter

38 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 Fig. 2: Curtain plot of water temperature along the track of Cyclone Phailin

Fig. 3: Sea surface temperature plot generated Fig. 4: 3D visualisaton of temperature by fusing the data from all available platforms data from model output

visualisation data in different graphical formats— User Management: The administrative module multi parameter, scatter, section, anomaly, is developed for user management, authentication vector, stick, HovmÖller, curtain and waterfall of users, their roles and privileges of access to plots, temperature/salinity and rose diagrams, different data sets, categorisation of data as per the inter-comparison or validation of different data, data sharing guidelines, metadata management, data fusion from different platforms and create 3D mail management, usage statistics, system and 4D animations (Fig. 2&3). In addition, remote statistics, monitoring of the observing network sensing data visualisation includes pseudo colour and the addition of new data streams. with time animation, base raster, multiband visualisation and time series, spatial and Way Forward spectral plot. In a nutshell, the Digital Ocean is the Data Fusion: Digital Ocean offers an important representation of a variety of data on a geo- feature for fusing similar data from diverse referenced ocean. In addition, the Digital platforms. When a query is passed to the Digital Ocean built on the real relief of the ocean floor Ocean it will provide/display the data either at characterised by abyssal plains, ridges, trenches, one level or at multiple levels, individually or in continental slopes, continental shelf and coasts combination as required, by fusing similar sensor help in viewing the evolution of oceanographic data from different platforms. Similarly, the features. Digital Ocean versatility provides Digital Ocean platform also allows the display and a view of the data on a global framework. In analysis of data on multiple parameters in space addition, it acts as the data warehouse and data and time simultaneously as they co-evolve. archive for efficient management of data. It can Data Formats and Downloads: Users can query therefore play a strategic role in the sustainable and fetch the data in different formats—csv, txt, development of the marine world to address the netCDF and also the plots from visualisation challenges faced by humankind in the exploration interface in GeoTiff, PNG, JPEG formats. It also of natural resources and management of marine supports instantaneous download of selected data environment particularly in the backdrop of through a ftp process for bulk data. global climate change.

GeoGraphy and you . 2020 39  INCOIS | DISaSter MaNageMeNt

By E Pattabhi Rama Rao, Ch Patanjali Kumar, B Ajay Kumar, M V Sunanda,R S Mahendra, P L N Murty, J Padmanabham, D Saikia & SSC Shenoi IndIan tsunami early WarnIng SyStem Future Developments

The authors are Senior Scientist and Head, Tsunami and Storm Surge Early Warning Services Group (TWG); Scientist E -TWG; Scientist C-TWG; Scientist D-TWG; Scientist E-TWG; Scientist C-TWG; Scientist D-TWG; Scientist D-TWG; and, Director respectively of ESSO-Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad. [email protected]. The article should be cited as Rao E.P.R., C.P. Kumar, B.A. Kumar, M.V. Sunanda and R.S. Mahendra, 2020. Indian Tsunami Early Warning System Future Developments, Geography and You, 20(6-7): 40-47

40 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 Deep-ocean tsunami detection buoys are a type of instrument used to confirm the arrival of tsunami waves generated by undersea earthquakes. A typical tsunami buoy system comprises two components; the pressure sensor anchored to the sea floor and the surface buoy. The sensor on the sea floor measures the change in height of the water column above by measuring associated changes in the water pressure. India has deployed a total of seven tsunami buoys. Photo Courtesy: Author Courtesy: Photo

GeoGraphy and you . 2020 41 the Indian ocean tsunami, triggered by the sumatra-Andaman earthquake on December 26, 2004, caused approximately 2,30,000 casualties and widespread damage to infrastructure in several Indian ocean rim countries. In fact, the 2004 tsunami was one of the strongest and deadliest ever recorded in terms of magnitude, which put into perspective the need to set up an early warning system for tsunamis in India. Following the 2004 tsunami, the Indian tsunami early Warning system (IteWs) was established to provide early warnings on impending tsunamis triggered due to earthquakes in the Indian ocean. this article describes various components of IteWs, the decision support system and the bulletins. It also discusses issues, challenges and future developments.

ndia's coastline stretches more than advisories to different stakeholders. The warning 7500 km with 30 per cent of the nation’s centre operates round the clock to monitor population living along the coasts. The tsunami development in the Indian Ocean and coastal population, ecosystem and provides timely advisories. ITEWC is recognised infrastructure in the coastal zone are as Tsunami Service Provider (TSP) for the becoming increasingly vulnerable to oceanogenic Indian Ocean region by the Intergovernmental Idisasters such as tsunamis and storm surges. Coordination Group for the Indian Ocean These events not only destroy life and coastal Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (ICG/ ecosystems, but also affect economic sectors like IOTWMS) of Intergovernmental Oceanographic agriculture, housing and tourism along with Commission (IOC-UNESCO) along with TSP nuclear and conventional power plants and coastal Indonesia and TSP Australia to provide tsunami transportation networks (including ports and early warnings to 25 countries bordering the harbours). Though, tsunamis are rare, unlike Indian Ocean. storm surges in the Indian Ocean, they create ITEWC has four components to address the widespread damage along the coast on a basin- tsunami risk in the Indian Ocean. First, detection wide scale within a very short span of time. of large earthquakes occurring in subduction An earthquake of magnitude Mw 9.3 (along zones of Indian Ocean—Andaman Sumatra and with the longest rupture time ever recorded Makran Subduction Zone. Second, confirmation of around 10 to 12 minutes) occurred off the of tsunami generation by observing significant coast of Banda Aceh, Indonesia on December water level changes through tsunami buoys near 26, 2004 and triggered a tsunami. The Indian epicentre regions. Third, pin pointed identification Ocean tsunami was the most destructive ever of the areas under risk using numerical model recorded, killing over 2,30,000 people and outputs and finally, monitoring the progress of displacing more than one million people along tsunami waves by coastal tide gauges and high the coasts of the Indian Ocean. In the wake of frequency coastal radars. this disastrous event, the Indian Government established the state-of-the-art Indian Tsunami observation network Early Warning System (ITEWS). ITEWS is a one Seismic network to monitor earthquakes: of a kind multi-institutional framework that was ITEWC uses data received in real time from the established in record time. The Indian Tsunami seismic network to auto detect earthquakes of Early Warning Centre (ITEWC) was set up at magnitude >5 from anywhere on the globe. The the ESSO-Indian National Centre for Ocean seismic network comprises approximately 400 Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad and seismic stations from national [Real Time Seismic made operational on October, 2007 (Gupta 2005). Monitoring Network (RTSMN)] and international ITEWC is equipped with expert resources and networks [Incorporated Research Institutions sophisticated computational and communication for Seismology (IRIS), Global Seismographic facilities to receive data in near-real time, Network (GSN) and GeoForschungsNetz process this data and then disseminate tsunami (GEOFON)]. The system is capable of monitoring

42 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 The ITEWC had successfully detected a 8.6 magnitude earthquake off the western coast of Aceh, northern Sumatra in 2012 and accurately analysed that it would not generate tsunami waves, while other advisories issued tsunami warning, triggering panic.

and reporting in the least possible time, the Indian coastline to monitor the progress of occurrence of earthquakes capable of generating the tsunami waves, as well as for validation tsunamis in the Indian Ocean region. of the model results. The deployment and Based on the earthquake information provided maintenance of these buoys are carried out by by the seismic network and other ocean related ESSO-INCOIS and ESSO-National Institute observations, ITEWC evaluates the tsunamigenic of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Chennai and potential of undersea earthquakes and issues the tide gauge network by ESSO-INCOIS and preliminary qualitative assessment, as per Survey of India (SoI). The tide gauges station standard operating procedure. uses three different sensors—radar (RAD), Sea level network for confirmation of pressure (PRS) and shaft encoder (ENC) tsunamis: A very crucial component of the gauges. In addition to the sea level network tsunami warning system that helps confirm the installed by India, ITEWC also receives data generation of a tsunami is the sea-level network in real time from the international sea level that comprises tsunami buoys and tide gauges network of about 60 tsunami buoys as part to detect and monitor tsunamis. Tsunami buoys of Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of are deployed close to the tsunamigenic source Tsunamis (DART) and 300 tide gauges of other regions in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian international agencies as part of the IOC-Sea Sea to detect the propagation of tsunami waves level Monitoring Facility. in the open ocean and tidal gauge stations are Since its establishment, ITEWC has till date

Photo Courtesy: Author Courtesy: Photo established along strategic locations of the monitored 549 tsunamigenic earthquakes of

GeoGraphy and you . 2020 43 magnitude M ≥ 6.5 and has issued timely tsunami wave at different segments of the coast (Nayak advisories to communities under risk. and Kumar 2008). The idea behind creating a pre- computed OOPSDB was to have a ready reference numerical Modelling for to quickly identify the coastal areas under risk Forecasting Tsunami and provide expected tsunami arrival times With a view to estimate the tsunami travel time (ETA) and expected tsunami wave amplitudes and run-up heights, ITEWC set up the TUNAMI (EWA) quick ly. N2 [Tohoku University’s Numerical Analysis For assessing the impact of tsunamis Model for Investigation of near-field tsunamis, originating from ‘far-source’ earthquakes No.2, (Imamura 1997)] and customised it occurring in the Pacific and South Atlantic for inundation studies for the Indian coastal Ocean regions, the Tsunami Model-Numerical region. The numerical modelling of tsunami simulation of Far-Field tsunamis using generation, propagation and inundation cannot TUNAMI-FF was made operational to run be run in real time as each model run requires model simulations in real time. substantial computing. Also, since the specific The spatial dataset of Coastal Forecast earthquake focal mechanism and rupture Zones (CFZs), generated using the geographic parameters (including resulting displacement information system (GIS), forms the basis for with area of rupture) needed to model the translating the model simulation results into tsunami wave propagation and inundation are an actionable advisory covering a geographical not immediately available, real time modelling section of the coastline. Each coastal forecast is difficult. The mechanism and parameters are zone is associated with quantitative information not known until well after an earthquake event, extracted from numerical model simulations if at all. To address this challenge an Open Ocean based on which action could be initiated by local Propagation Scenario Database (OOPSDB) for administrators. the Indian Ocean was generated for different Further, finite element based earthquake scenarios on 1000 segments (each ADvancedCIRCulation (ADCIRC) model segment represents a 7.5 Mw earthquake rupture developed by the joint efforts of the US Navy length and width of 100 x 50 km with slip of 1 m) Corps and University of Notre Dame is covering Andaman-Sumatra-Java and Makran customised to compute the tsunami propagation subduction zones, to provide information on and inundation along the Indian coasts in expected arrival time and amplitude of tsunami real time (Luettich and Westerink 2004). The

Fig. 1: Global network of seismic broadband Fig. 2: Sea level network—tsunami stations including Indian stations used for real-time buoys and tide gauges established earthquake monitoring by India

70oN

30oN

10oS

50oS

o o o o o o o o o o 100 W 60 W 20 W 20 e 60 e 100 e 140 e100 140 W 90 Tide gauge National seismic stations (RTSMN) Tsunami buoy

International seismic stations (IRIS & GeofoN) Subduction zone Map not scale

44 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 model was successfully run experimentally since enough time will not be available to confirm and the results are in good agreement with water levels from tsunami buoys and tide gauges. the observations. The model will be made Those coastal areas falling outside the 60 minutes’ operational soon. travel time from a tsunamigenic earthquake source could be put under the alert or watch status standard operating procedure and and upgraded to warning only upon confirmation decision support system from the water-level data. Considering the critical importance of the A Decision Support System (DSS) that was warning dissemination, ITEWC has developed developed inhouse to capture the real time a standard operating procedure (SOP) for earthquake information from multiple sources, generating and issuing tsunami information makes decisions based on situational analysis to national and international warning centres (using the model results) and observational (Nayak and Kumar 2011). ITEWC services analysis (using the sea level data) and issues for an earthquake event commence whenever timely tsunami bulletins that include earthquake earthquakes are recorded with magnitudes information and threat-level information if an ≥6.5 within the Indian Ocean and magnitudes earthquake has a potential to generate a tsunami ≥8.0 outside the Indian Ocean. Upon detecting (Nayak and Kumar 2011). a tsunamigenic earthquake, scientists on The DSS disseminates bulletins under the tsunami duty begin their analysis immediately, which management guidelines issued by the National includes automatic and interactive processes for Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in 2010. determining the earthquake’s epicentre, depth, These bulletins are sent to the Ministry of Home and origin time, as well as its magnitude. The Affairs (MHA) control room, Ministry of Earth criteria for the generation of different threat Sciences (MoES), NDMA as well as the Andaman types—warning, alert or watch, for a particular and Nicobar Administration. Considering that region of the coast are based on the available Andaman and Nicobar islands are close to the warning time—time taken by the tsunami tsunamigenic zones, priority is accorded to it in wave to reach the particular coast. The threat disseminating tsunami bulletins during an event criteria are based on the premise that coastal through a fail-safe satellite-based communication areas falling within 60 minutes travel time from system VSAT aided emergency communication a tsunamigenic earthquake source need to be system (VECS). Earthquake information, tsunami warned based solely on earthquake information, bulletins as well as real-time sea level observations

Fig. 3: Open Ocean Propagation Fig. 4 : Real time numerical model outputs for March Scenario Data Base (OOPS-DB) for 11, 2011 tsunami triggered by a M 9.1 earthquake in the Indian Ocean the east coast of Honshu, Japan

o 30 N Predicted deep water tsunami wave amplitude (m) 0 0.02-0.05 0.05-0.1

o 0.1-0.2 0 S 0.2-0.25 0.25-0.3 0.3-0.35 0.35-0.4 0.4-0.5 30oS 0.5-0.6 0.6-.75 0.75-1.0 1.0-1.5 1.5-2.0 60oS 2.0-40 epicentre

30oe 60oe 90oe 120oe 150oe Subduction zone Indian ocean ooPS-DB Predicted deep water tsunami wave amplitude Model domain Pacific and Tsunami travel time Unit sources South Atlantic oceans High : 0.74 Low : 0

GeoGraphy and you . 2020 45 Fig. 5: Standard Operating Procedure and Bulletin Timelines (as per NDMA guidelines) of ITEWC

To earthquake

Mag≥6.5 Depth<100 km ocean

B1: To + 10 min

pre-run model scenario database expected tsunami arrival times ≤ 60 mins expected tsunami arrival times > 60 mins expected tsunami Threat status expected Threat status wave amplitudes (M) tsunami wave B2: To + 20 min amplitudes (M) > 2 WARNING > 2 ALeRT

B2-Supple : As and 0.5 to 2 ALeRT 0.5 to 2 WATCH when revised eQ 0.2 to 0.5 WATCH 0.2 to 0.5 WATCH para available

no SIgnIfIcant changeS In Water level Real-time water-level observations signiFicant changes BPRs/Tide gauges in water level

B3: As and when first real-time estimated threat status Updated threat status observation becomes available expected tsunami Threat status expected tsunami wave Threat status wave amplitudes (M) amplitudes (M) B3-Supple : As and > 2 ALeRT > 2 WARNING when more real- time observations 0.5 to 2 WATCH 0.5 to 2 WATCH become available 0.2 to 0.5 WATCH 0.2 to 0.5 WATCH

final: No significant change in WL(or) last exceedance of threat no significant change threat passed threshold at last Indian coast+120 minutes

To - Time zero B2 - Bulletin -2 WL - Water Level B1 - Bulletin -1 B3 - Bulletin -3 BPR - Bottom Pressure Recorders are also made available on a dedicated website Operations Centres (DEOCs). ESSO-INCOIS for officials, public and media. Users can register directly disseminates bulletins as well. on the website to receive earthquake alerts and tsunami bulletins. MHA and NDMA pass on the Community awareness and preparedness tsunami bulletins to National Crisis Management Tsunami impact can be mitigated through Committee (NCMC), National Disaster Response public education, community awareness and Force (NDRF), State Emergency Operation preparedness. ITEWC has been organising Centres (SEOCs) and the District Emergency regular workshops, training and seminars to

46 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 create awareness among disaster management The recent Palu and Krakatau tsunami events officers and other stakeholders. Further, ITEWC triggered by atypical sources such as submarine tests the efficiency of communication links twice a landslides and volcanic collapses pose a challenge year to evaluate the readiness to handle emergency to the existing tsunami early warning systems. It situations. The communication (COMMs) is imperative to identify such regions in the Indian tests are conducted in coordination with ICG/ Ocean to assess the potential for such atypical IOTWMS of IOC-UNESCO ensuring the tsunamis, address the gaps and strengthen participation of all countries on the Indian Ocean the upstream and downstream parts of early rim (IOR). warning chains. Considering the immediate ITEWC conducts tsunami mock drills at the need to address these challenges, ICG/IOTWMS national and the regional level (IOWave Exercises) initiated development of a Probabilistic Tsunami under the aegis of IOTWMS every alternate Hazard Assessment (PTHA) for the poorly year to evaluate and improve the effectiveness understood Makran region and its impact on the of SOPs of TWC and disaster management neighbouring countries as well as strengthening officers, in responding to a potentially destructive tsunami early warning chain through a regional tsunami. The recent tsunami mock exercise of cooperation. ITEWC is an active collaborator IOWave18 involving all countries on the IOR in in these initiatives in the North Western Indian 2018 and multi-state exercise for the east coast of Ocean region. Further, ITEWC is engaged in India conducted jointly with MHA and NDMA strengthening the downstream part of the early in 2017 are great examples to build a tsunami warning chain in coordination with the disaster resilient community. More than 1,00,000 coastal management agencies at the national and state communities participated in these tsunami levels and involving the locals in building tsunami mock exercises. resilient coastal communities. ITEWC also initiated the implementation of the pilot Indian Ocean Tsunami Ready (IOTR) references programme of ICG/IOTWMS at a community Gupta H. 2005. Mega-tsunami of 26 December 2004: level. The IOTR (IOTIC 2017) is a voluntary Indian initiative for Early Warning System and community-based programme that facilitates Mitigation of Oceanogenic Hazards, 28(1): 2-5. tsunami preparedness as an active collaboration Available at: https://bit.ly/2RSmXal of the public, community leaders, local and Imamura F. 1997. TSUNAMI Modelling Manual national emergency management agencies. The (TUNAMI model): UNESCO, Paris: France. main objective of IOTR is to improve coastal Available at: http://www.tsunami.civil.tohoku. preparedness for tsunami emergencies and to ac.jp/hokusai3/J/projects/manual-ver-3.1.pdf minimise the loss of life and property. In India, Indian Ocean Tsunami Information Centre (IOTIC). Odisha tested IOTR in six villages on pilot basis 2017. Guidelines for Indian Ocean Tsunami Ready during the IOWAVE18. (IOTR) Programme: Indicators, Checklist, National Recognition and Pilot Implementation Plan. Available Way Forward at: www.ioc-tsunami.org/IOTRguidelines The past decade has witnessed substantial Luettich R., and J. Westerink. 2004. Formulation developments in the detection of tsunamigenic and Numerical Implementation of The 2D/3D earthquakes, tsunami forecast, delivery of timely ADCIRC Finite Element Model Version 44.XX. and accurate tsunami early warnings mainly due Available at: https://bit.ly/34QvEHb to rapid advances in the observational systems, Nayak S. and T. S. Kumar. 2008. Addressing The tsunami modelling and robust communication Risk of The Tsunami in The Indian Ocean, and computational systems. Further, concerted Journal of South Asia Disaster Studies, 1: 45–57. efforts internationally in the development of Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/ interoperable systems by harmonising the publication/265323682_Addressing_the_Risk_ methods and standards for issuance of tsunami of_Tsunami_in_the_Indian_Ocean advisories, capacity building through community Nayak S. and T. S. Kumar. 2011. Tsunami Watch awareness and preparedness have significantly and Warning Centers, In Gupta H. K. (ed.) contributed to save lives and minimise losses Encyclopedia of Solid Earth Geophysics, Dordrecht: due to tsunamis. Springer, Dordrecht.

GeoGraphy and you . 2020 47  INCOIS | DISaSter MaNageMeNt

By Sudheer Joseph, A Srivastava, A K Das, A Sharma, A Mehra, Hyun-Sook Kim, D Iredell, S Gopalkrishnan, K J Ramesh, M Mohapatra, S S C Shenoi & M Rajeevan FOrecastIng trOpIcal cyclOnes In the IndIan Ocean a hycOM-hWrF cOupled systeM

Tropical storm forecast models conventionally use static sea surface temperature (SST), assuming its temporal changes are not significant in forecast. However, oceanic processes such as upwelling, currents and eddies, significantly modulate SST even at short time scales. Such changes have the potential to influence the planetary boundary layer. Eminent climate scientists, Morris A Bender and Issac Ginis have shown that inclusion of initial conditions with oceanic mesoscale features can improve hurricane/ cyclone intensity forecasts. Scientific evidence thus supports better forecasts with coupled forecast systems and several forecast centres across the globe depend on such systems. In line with the international efforts, Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) and two of its institutes, ESSO-INCOIS and ESSO-IMD, established a state-of-the-art coupled forecasting system for cyclones arising in the Indian Ocean in collaboration with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of USA. In the present article, we explore the relevance of the system and its performance in achieving this goal.

The authors are Head, Ocean-Atmosphere Coupled System Group (CSG), ESSO-INCOIS; Scientists, India Meteorological Department (IMD), Senior Scientists, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Former Director General, IMD, Director General, IMD; Director ESSO-INCOIS and Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences. [email protected]. The article should be cited as Joseph S., A. Srivastava, A.K. Das, A. Sharma, A. Mehra et al., 2020. Forecasting Tropical Cyclones in the Indian Ocean, Geography and You, 20(6-7): 48-53

48 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 ESSO-IMD made the first operational forecast using the HWRF-HYCOM coupled system together with other models during April 2019 for sA tropical cyclone Fani, which made landfall in Odisha on May 3, 2019. Photo Courtesy: NA Courtesy: Photo

GeoGGrraphy and yyoou . 2020 49 ropical cyclones (TCs) are one of the Research and Forecasting (HWRF) model when most destructive weather phenomena coupled with an ocean model (Kim et al. 2014). often resulting in casualties and Oceanic processes such as upwelling, currents, extensive damage to property. In a eddies, significantly modulate the sea surface climate change scenario, its effect temperature (SST) even at short time scales. can be more than a simple rise in temperatures, Such changes have the potential to influence likeT changing patterns of natural tropical storms. the planetary boundary layer (Warner et al. Increased intensity of cyclones in recent years 1990). Scientists have also shown that inclusion has been attributed to climate change by many of initial conditions with oceanic features can researchers (Mohapatra et al. 2017; Balaguru et al. improve hurricane/cyclone intensity forecasts 2016; Webster et al. 2005; Emanuel 2005; Mann (Bender and Ginis 2000). As the primary source and Emanuel 2006; Elsner, Kossin and Jagger of energy for tropical cyclones comes from the 2008; Knutson et al. 2010). ocean, the coupled model solution is closer to the Climatologically cyclonic activity in the north natural environment. Sources of oceanic energy Indian Ocean shows two maxima—April-May are—ocean and atmosphere heat exchange, its and October-December (Pattanaik et al. 2017). steep momentum due to higher heat capacity The cyclone season of 2019 was unique in many compared to the atmosphere and the closure aspects in the history of the Indian Ocean. The of thermodynamic feedback between the season showcased eight storms, with six of them atmosphere and the ocean. developing to a very severe cyclonic stage and The HWRF system is different in many one developing as a super cyclone—christened aspects compared to the conventional modelling Kyarr. Accumulated cyclone energy (ACE) for the systems. It has unique moving nested grids for the 2019 season is 85.5 as of October 2019, which is atmospheric model which provides the highest ~4.4 times higher than the mean value (19.4) for a resolution near to the location of the storm. In period from 1972 to 2018 (Fig. 1). addition, it is supported with an advanced data Given the high potential for damage by TC, assimilation system which includes an option forecasting centres across the globe are working for cycling the initial vortex. The HWRF physics towards continuous improvements and accurate packages are advanced on the basis of observation. forecasts. India Meteorological Department In the configuration adapted at ESSO-IMD (IMD) too works towards reducing forecast errors and ESSO-INCOIS, the HWRF has a parent in tandem with the international efforts. During domain covering the north Indian Ocean at the 2010-2013 period (Das et al. 2015), IMD used 18 km horizontal resolution nesting a middle the atmosphere alone model for operational and innermost domain with 6 km and 2 km forecasts. However, researchers showed evidence resolution, respectively, that follow the storm as it of better performance for Hurricane Weather evolves (Fig. 2).

Fig. 1: Bar chart of accumulated cyclone energy (ACE) for north Indian ocean from 1972 to 2019. Red dashed line indicates mean value for period between 1972 and 2018

80

60

40 ACE

20

0 1972 1974 1976 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2019

50 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 Fig. 2: Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting (HWRF) parent and nested domains (pink boxes) used for TC Fani forecast. The 24 hour forecast fields of surface temperature (shade), geopotential height (contour) and 850-hPa winds (vector), superimposed with 10 m mean sea level (streamline) in the innermost domain.

299.7 50N 297 294.3 40N 291.7 289 30N 1000 286.3 996 20N 283.7 992 281 988 10N 984 278.3 980 275.7 EQ 976 273 Brightness temperature in Kelvin 972 10S 270.3 968 267.7 964 20S 265 960 262.3 30S Nest Mean Sea TMP-K 30E 40E 50E 60E 70E 80E 90E 100E 110E 120E 130E Level Pressure (MSLP)

Fig. 3: Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting (HWRF) simulated brightness temperature showing signature of tropical cyclone Fani in Bay of Bengal

50N 305.294 294.895 40N 284.496 274.097 30N 263.697 253.298 20N 242.899 232.5 10N 222.101

EQ 211.702

201.303 Brightness Temperature in Kelvin 10S 190.903 180.504 20S 170.105 159.706 30S

30E 40E 50E 60E 70E 80E 90E 100E 110E 120E 130E

GeoGraphy and you . 2020 51 Fig. 4: Comparison of absolute mean track errors of HWRF coupled between POM and HYCOM of IMD and NCEP. Error bars represent standard deviation at different forecast lead hours 500 TrACK_Err_iNCoiS_HyCoM_iMD TrACK_Err_PoM_iMD 400 TrACK_Err_Err_NCEP_HyCoM

300

200 Direct position errors (km) 100

0 0 6 12 18 24 30 36 42 48 54 60 66 72 78 84 90 96 102 108 114 120 126 Forecast hours HyCoM - Hybrid coordinate modeL; PoM - Princeton ocean model; NCEP - National centre for environmental prediction; HWrF - Hurricane weather research and forecasting model

The simulation from the existing operational Vayu, Hikaa, Kyarr, Maha and Bulbul. HYCOM model at ESSO-INCOIS was modified to suit the grid requirement of the HWRF coupled Way Forward system. ESSO-IMD made the first operational Despite the accomplishment of a working coupled forecast for Cyclone Fani using the HWRF- forecast system for tropical cyclones for the nation, HYCOM coupled system together with other there remain several elements which can better models during April 2019. the forecast. For instance real time observations In the operational set-up of the HWRF- at storm centres and assimilating such data can HYCOM coupled system, the model runs four considerably improve the accuracy of the forecast. times a day at 00, 06,12 and 18 UTC assimilating For such observations, specialised storm resistant the observations available at the time of a run. aircrafts need to be used, which may be taken Each cycle produces 126 hour forecasts. up as the next step for improving the presently Brightness temperature forecast by the model for established system. April 29, 2019 at 00 hours, showing the influence of TC Fani is presented in figure 3. The scientists references at INCOIS and IMD assesses the quality of the Balaguru K., G. R. Foltz, L. R. Leung and K. A. forecast for a cyclone as the average distance Emanuel. 2016. Global Warming-Induced between forecast track at each hour and the track Upper-Ocean Freshening and The Intensification officially declared as ‘best track’ by ESSO-IMD. of Super Typhoons, Nature communications, 7(1): Similarly, they also estimated the intensity of error 1–8. Available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/ as the difference between maximum sustained ncomms13670 forecast wind or minimum pressure between the Bender M. A. and I. Ginis. 2000. Real-Case Simulations best track estimate and the forecast track. of Hurricane–Ocean Interaction Using A High- The results showed that the newly established resolution Coupled Model: Effects on Hurricane system performed well in comparison Intensity, Monthly Weather Review, 128(4): with forecasts issued by NCEP and also the 917—946. Available at: https://bit.ly/2Y0VBT6 Princeton Ocean Model (POM) coupled Das A. K., Y. V. R. Rao, V. S. Tallapragada , Z Zhang forecast of ESSO-IMD (Fig. 4). After the TC and S. K. R. Bhowmik. 2015. Evaluation of the Fani system, successful forecasts include that of Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting

52 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 (HWRF) Model for Tropical Cyclone Forecasts Now read Over The North Indian Ocean (NIO), Natural Hazards, 75:1205–1221. Available at: https://bit. G'nY ly/3eRrVhs Kim H. S., C. Lozano, V. Tallapragada, D. Iredell and D. e-articles Sheinin. 2014. Performance of Ocean Simulations in the Coupled HWRF–HYCOM Model, Journal on our of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology. Available at: https://bit.ly/3cKr1Be website... Pattanaik D. R., O. P. Sreejith, D. S. Pai and M. Musale. 2017. Seasonal Forecast of Tropical Cyclogenesis Over Bay of Bengal During Post-monsoon Season, in Mohapatra M., B. K. Bandyopadhyay and L. S. Rathore (ed.) Tropical Cyclone Activity over the North Indian Ocean, New Delhi: Springer International Publishing. Emanuel K. 2005. Increasing Destructiveness of Tropical Cyclones Over The Past 30 year', Nature, 436: 686–688. Available at: https://www.nature. com/articles/nature03906 Mann M. E. and K. A. Emanuel. 2006. Atlantic Hurricane Trends Linked to Climate Change, Advancing Earth and Space Science, 87(24): 233– 241. Available at: https://bit.ly/2yDX9Yz Mohapatra M., A. K. Srivastava, S. Balachandran and B. Geetha. 2017. Inter-annual Variation and Trends in Tropical Cyclones and Monsoon Depressions Over the North Indian Ocean, in Rajeevan M. N. and S. Nayak (ed.) Observed Climate Variability and Change over the Indian Region, Singapore: Springer. Elsner J. B., J. P. Kossin and T. H. Jagger. 2008. The Increasing Intensity of The Strongest Tropical Cyclone, Nature, 455(7209): 92-95. Available at: https://fla.st/2VVOmcl Log on to www. Knutson T. R., J. L. McBride, J. Chan, K. Emanuel and geographyandyou. G. Holland. 2010. Tropical Cyclones and Climate Change, Nature geoscience, 3: 157-163. Available at: com/shop/categories/ https://www.nature.com/articles/ngeo779 listing/11 Warner T. T., M. N. Lakhtakia, J. D. Doyle and R. A. Pearson. 1990. Marine Atmospheric Boundary Layer Circulations Forced by Gulf Stream Sea Surface Temperature Gradients, Monthly weather review, 118(2): 309—323. Available at: https://bit. Lights ly/2S7sMRk For more information please contact our Webster P. J., G. J. Holland, J. A. Curry and H. R. Subscription Cell. Address of correspondence: Chang. 2005. Changes in Tropical Cyclone Iris Publication Pvt. Ltd., 504, Bhikaji Cama Number, Duration, and Intensity in a Warming Bhawan, R.K. Puram, New Delhi - 110066, Environment, Science, 309(5742): 1844–1846. Ph.: +91-11-26186350, 46014233 Available at: https://science.sciencemag.org/ Email: [email protected] content/309/5742/1844 Visit us at: www.geographyandyou.com/shop

GeoGraphy and you . 2020 53  INCOIS | DISaSter MaNageMeNt

By R S Mahendra, P C Mohanty, H Shiva Kumar & E Pattabhi Rama Rao Coastal VulneRability and Risk assessment Dense population along the Indian coast impacts the coral ecosystems making them susceptible to natural and man-made hazards. This work assesses the physical vulnerability and socio-economic risks due to oceanogenic disasters at the regional as well as micro level. The study also encompasses the impact of sea surface temperature (SST) on coral ecosystems that leads to coral bleaching. The assessment of remote sensing data combined with geographical information system (GIS) technology provides meaningful information on coastal vulnerability and risk associated with oceanogenic disasters along the Indian coast holding immense relevance for disaster management.

The authors are Scientist E, in-charge of CGAM Team; Project Scientists B; and, Head of Tsunami and Storm Surge Early Warning Services Group, respectively, Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad, respectively. [email protected]. The article should be cited as Mahendra R.S., P.C. Mohanty, H. Shiva Kumar and E. Pattabhi Rama Rao. 2020. Coastal Vulnerability and Risk Assessment, Geography and You, 20(6-7): 54-61

54 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 India has a vast coastline of 7516.6 km, touches nine states and four union territories, posing unique challenges in identifying vulnerabilities to its coastal settlements and communities. TabI.Com ezu- TorIa : TeSy Cour Pho To

GeoGraphy and you . 2020 55 ulnerability is a degree to which a system is susceptible, or unable to cope with, adverse effects of climate change, including climate variability and extremes (IPCC 2001). In the coastal perspective, vulnerability is Va measure of the propensity of coastal elements/ resources to hazards such as tsunami, storm surge, coastal erosion and sea level rise. The risk entails potential loss, damage or destruction of coastal elements. As densely populated coastal zones are exposed to uncertain natural environment, scientific assessment of their vulnerability and risk becomes imperative. There are several approaches adopted by researchers to assess the coastal vulnerability (Kumar et al. 2010; INCOIS 2012; Ganesh et al. 2016; Ahammed et al. 2016; Mohanty et al. 2017). Coastal vulnerability index (CVI) is one such procedure to estimate physical fragility. CVI is calculated using the parameters such as shoreline change rate, coastal slope, coastal elevation, coastal geomorphology, tidal range, sea level change rate, geomorphology, significant wave height and historical rate of relative sea level change. CVI estimates indices for each coastal stretch that indicates the implications of future sea level rise. Besides, multi-hazard vulnerability mapping (MHVM) is an assessment of coastal There are several flooding due to oceanogenic disasters such as tsunami, storm surge, coastal flooding, challenges in the erosion and sea level rise (Mahendra et al 2010; Mahendra et al 2011; Saxena et al. 2012). vulnerability findings, MHVM is a single cumulative map representing multiple oceanogenic hazards that cause coastal which can be further inundation. Coral bleaching representing the risk due to elevated temperatures is also improved by using assessed based on the sea surface temperature (SST) parameters using National Oceanic and high resolution Atmospheric Administration’s Advanced Very multi-temporal data High Resolution Radiometer (NOAA- AVHRR) satellite data. MHVM uses a different method, derived from remote carried out using the parameters of extreme water levels extracted from continuous hourly sensing platforms, tide gauge data, sea level rise, coastal erosion, high resolution topographic data unlike the simulations and CVI. All activities mentioned in this article are initiatives of the ESSO-Indian National Centre other observational for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS). A systematic and scientific assessment of platforms. coastal vulnerability and risk can be undertaken through geospatial technologies that comprise

56 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 GIS, remote sensing (RS) and global positioning Fig. 1: High resolution DEM data derived using system (GPS). Remote sensing can provide vital digital camera and elevation contours of the Visag region inputs such as synoptic and detailed data required for emergency and post disaster responses for the correct vulnerability and impact analysis. Inputs such as digital elevation models (DEM) generated using high resolution remote sensing, and aerial platforms provide critical inputs in the simulation of the disaster scenario in real time. The recent advancements in automation and digital interpretation methods in the field of geospatial technology have facilitated in making disaster warning and mitigation process faster and simpler. Further, web GIS interfaces and Fig. 2: Map of CVI and input risk parameters of the Web Map Service (WMS) have become handier Andhra Pradesh coast for disaster managers, policy makers and users to get the information interactively. Geospatial Maharashtra Odisha CVI SCR Elevation Slope Sea level change Geomorphology Tidal range SWH aids such as mobile/web-based solutions are being Chhattisgarh extensively deployed in emergency responses and relief operations. Airborne Lidar Terrain Mapping (ALTM) Telangana can produce high resolution topographic data Risk rating CVi representing coastal DEM that provides accurate Andhra Pradesh 5 Very high coastal topography yields in terms of estimation of 4 High highly accurate coastal inundation by simulating 3 Medium tsunami scenarios and vulnerability assessments. 2 Low An example of high resolution DEM overlaid with 1 elevation contour is shown as figure 1.

Cvi Mapping Carried out on a scale of 1:1,00,000, the aim of the Fig. 3: Areas of MHVM (orange) along parts of Visag coastal vulnerability assessment is to objectively area, Andhra Pradesh determine the risks due to future sea-level rise based on the physical and geological parameters for the Indian coast. The CVI takes into account the relative risk of physical changes that will occur as sea level rises and combines a coastal system’s susceptibility to change with its natural ability to adapt to changing environmental conditions. The CVI then yields a relative measure of the system’s natural vulnerability to the effects of sea level rise. These CVI maps are useful in long term resource management such as threats to resources and provides insight into the relative potential of coastal change due to future sea level rise. The maps and data in figure 2 can be viewed in at least two ways—first as a base for developing a more complete inventory of variables influencing the coastal vulnerability to future sea level rise to which other elements can be added as they become available; and second as an example of the potential for assessing coastal vulnerability to Note: Orange depicts extent of flooding

GeoGraphy and you . 2020 57 future sea level rise using an objective criteria. techniques. These techniques do not meet the Multi-hazard Vulnerability Mapping accuracy demands of risk mapping in estimating (MHVM): The purpose of MHVM is to identify vertical relief and only provide what is known the most vulnerable and high risk areas on a as 2.5D information in GIS parlance. 3D GIS on priority basis. The multi-hazard mapping is the other hand is able to effectively visualise and carried out using multiple parameters which communicate the inundation risk at building level are then synthesised to derive a composite and plan for evacuation routes. hazard line. A 3D GIS mapping was undertaken along the The hazard and vulnerability maps at the scale Cuddalore coast and realistic 3D models of the of 1:25,000, reflect coastal inundation caused buildings along with the attributed details of the due to oceanogenic disasters and can be used for owner, address and other socio-demographic details coastal zone planning, for disaster preparedness, was generated. The base level information of the management and risk assessment, as well as for buildings/ settlements was extracted from the aerial the planning of future developmental projects. A and high resolution satellite data, while the socio- sample map overlaid on DEM is provided demographic details were collected through field in figure 3. surveys. Video mapping using 360 degree cameras was carried out to procure a high resolution view of 3dGisMapping the buildings and the terrain. A tsunami inundation Projecting settlement utilities and socio-economic scenario was generated using the numerical models. details on to the desktop, 3D GIS mapping Based on the inundation depth and the socio- surpasses all existing photogrammetric economic data—such as population and building

Fig. 4: Tsunami inundation level at each building (top) and building level risk due to tsunami (bottom) is estimated along the Cuddalore coast

inundation depth 3m 2m 1m

building risk Very high High Moderate Low

58 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are home to some of the country’s most beautiful coral reefs and host 89 per cent of India’s coral diversity. The island's reefs suffered

Iak from a series of bleaching events place 1998 and 2016, triggered n Surm n a

TI by natural catastrophes such as S cyclones, tsunamis and warm : Seba underwater currents. Lately marine TeSy development near Port Blair

Cour and invasive tourism are further

Pho To threatening the reefs.

GeoGraphy and you . 2020 59 Fig. 5: Time-series SST anomaly in Indian coral environs (top) and composites of HotSpot (bottom left), Degree of heating weeks (bottom centre) and field photos (bottom right) of bleaching event recorded during Summer months of 2016

4 3 Bleaching threshold 2 1 0 -1 Andaman Nicobar -2 Gulf of Mannar

(degree centigrade) -3 Lakshadweep Temperature anomaly Gulf of Kutch -4 -5 Jan/10 Jan/15 Sep/11 Sep/16 May/13 May/18 Date (ddmmyy) April 03,2016 April 06,2016 April 03,2016 April 06,2016 March 28,2016 March 31,2016 March 28,2016 March 31,2016 April 09,2016 April 12,2016 April 15,2016 April 18,2016 April 09,2016 April 12,2016 April 15,2016 April 18,2016 April 21,2016 April 24,2016 April 27,2016 April 30,2016 April 21,2016 April 24,2016 April 27,2016 April 30,2016

No stress (< 0) Watch (0 to 1) Warning (>1) Warning Alert level-1 Alert level-2 A bleaching event was recorded during the April-May 2016 at Andaman validated with field data

type, a graded risk index was calculated (Fig. 4). coral bleaching alert system (CBAS) service was The scenario-based risk assessment enhances the initiated by ESSO-INCOIS with the objective of efficacy of tsunami advisories and will be vital for assessing the probable extent and intensity of coral disaster management offices to prioritise their bleaching along the Indian coast. disaster action plans. The main SST parameters derived are the three day hot spot (HS)—positive anomaly and Coral Bleaching alert system (CBas) degree of heating weeks (DHWs)—the sum of Coral reefs are one of the most biologically SST above the threshold in the past three months. diverse marine ecosystems on earth. They play Based on HS detection, the DHWs is categorised an important role in marine ecosystems and into—warning (corals under thermal stress), alert support myriad habitats in the sea. Ecologically, level-1 (corals are under thermal stress and partial coral reefs are important because they are the bleaching expected) and alert level-2 (corals are counterpart to the tropical rain forest in terms of under serious thermal stress and widespread species diversity and biological productivity in the bleaching expected). The early signs of the ocean. However, the vast diversity of animal and intensity and spatial extents of coral bleaching plant species that contribute to the endurance and can therefore be understood. This methodology perpetuity of the genetic heritage that coral reefs is adapted from the NOAA reef watch and tested represent is increasingly at risk over the past few for the earlier bleaching events of Indian coral decades. Corals are very sensitive and undergo environs (Mohanty et al. 2013; Mohanty et al. thermal stress due to elevated temperatures in the 2017; Krishnan et al. 2018). Validation of coral oceanic waters. Satellite derived SST data provides bleaching event recorded during summer months useful insights in calculating probabilities of of 2016 was presented in figure 5. coral bleaching due to elevated temperature. The Though coral bleaching cannot be prevented, the

60 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 study can enable policy makers and researchers J. J. Jeevamani and J. A. Infantina. 2018. to assess the extent of damage, facilitating the Framework for mapping the drivers of adoption of appropriate coral rehabilitation and vulnerability and spatial decision making for preventive measures. The advisories can also climate change adaptation in coastal India: A be used by the eco-tourism industry to inform Case study from Maharashtra, India, Ambio, tourists about such events, sensitising them for the 48(2): 192-212. Available at: https://bit. need to conserve. ly/3aQMMyd Kumar T. S., R. S. Mahendra, S. Nayak, K. Way Forward Radhakrishnan, K. C. Sahu. 2010. Coastal There are several challenges in the vulnerability Vulnerability Assessment for Orissa State, East findings, which can be further improved by using Coast of India, Journal of Coastal Research, high resolution multi-temporal data derived from 26(3): 523-534. Available at: https://bit. remote sensing platforms, simulations and other ly/2KGeZgn observational platforms. The data needs constant Mahendra R.S., P. Mohanty, T. S. Kumar and S. C. updation to bolster the risk assessment. The Shenoi and S. Nayak. 2010. Coastal Multi-hazard building level risk assessment can be extended to Vulnerability Mapping: A Case Study Along The the entire coast of India. Further strengthening Coast of Nellore District, East Coast of India, in terms of the adaptive capacity and sensitivity European Journal of Remote Sensing, 42(3): 67-76. of the vulnerable elements needs impactful policy Available at: https://bit.ly/2KDl6C4 interventions that will help improve resilience. Mahendra R. S., P. C. Mohanty, H. Bisoyi, T. S. The coral bleaching studies can be further V. Kumar and S. Nayak. 2011. Assessment enhanced by carrying out location specific and Management of Coastal Multi-hazard impact studies using in-situ observations. Finally, Vulnerability Along The Cuddalore-Villupuram, all the information, data and maps need to be East Coast of India Using Geospatial Techniques, disseminated to the end users in the form of an Ocean and Coastal Management, 54(4): 302-311. atlas and WMS/website for the appropriate use Available at: https://bit.ly/2KCAQFo of stakeholders. Mohanty P. C., R. S. Mahendra, H. Bisoyi, S. K. Tummula and G. Grinson. 2013. Assessment of references The Coral Bleaching During 2005 to Decipher Ahammed Basheer K.K., R.S. Mahendra and A.C. The Thermal Stress in The Coral Environs of Pandey. 2016. Coastal Vulnerability Assessment The Andaman Islands Using Remote Sensing, for Eastern Coast of India, Andhra Pradesh by European Journal of Remote Sensing, 46: 417-430. Using Geo-Spatial Technique, Geoinformatics Available at: https://bit.ly/2W3fZ3v & Geostatistics: An Overview, 4(3). Available at: Mohanty P. C., R. S. Mahendra, R. K. Nayak and T. https://bit.ly/3bMFGfb S. Kumar. 2017. Impact of Sea Level Rise and Ganesh V., R. S. Mahendra, P. C. Mohanty, T. S. Coastal Slope on Shoreline Change Along the Kumar and S. Nanda. 2016. Coastal Vulnerability Indian Coast, Natural Hazards, 89(3): 1227–1238. Assessment for North East Coast of Andhra Available at: https://bit.ly/35eQr7r Pradesh, India, IJRSG, 5(2): 1-7. Available at: Mohanty P. C., P. Venkateshwaran, R. S Mahendra, H. https://bit.ly/35nJvFv S. Kumar and T. S. Kumar. 2017. Coral Bleaching Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Along Andaman Coast Due to Thermal Stress Services (INCOIS). 2012. Coastal Vulnerability During Summer Months of 2016: A Geospatial Atlas of India: INCOIS, Hyderabad: India. Assessment, American Journal of Environmental Available at: ISBN 978-81-923474-0-0. Protection, 6(1): 1-6. Available at: https://bit. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). ly/2zyeaUp 2001. Climate Change 2001: Impacts, Adaptation Saxena S., P. Ramachandran, G. M. D. Suganya and R. and Vulnerability: Cambridge University Press, Ramachandran. 2012. Coastal Hazard Mapping Cambridge: United Kingdom. Available at: in The Cuddalore Region, South India, Natural https://bit.ly/2KFtfpN hazards, 66: 1519-1536. Available at: https://bit. Krishnan P., P.S. Ananthan, P. Ramachandran., ly/2VIVUAh

GeoGraphy and you . 2020 61  INCOIS | DISaSter MaNageMeNt

Chlorophyll-a, the dominant photosynthetic pigment of phytoplankton—an index of phytoplankton biomass, is used as the primary parameter for the remote detection of algal blooms.

Chlorophyll concentration (mg/m3)

0.05 0.1 0.3 1 3 10 30 50

62 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 By SK Baliarsingh, A Samanta & A Lotliker m o nitoring of AlgAl Blooms in the indiAn

Seathe present century is experiencing frequent widespreadS occurrences of algal bloom events in different regions of the world’s oceans. the bloom events more often deteriorate the functions of the ecosystem. therefore, fishermen, fishery resource managers, researchers, ecologists, pollution monitoring agencies and environmentalists demand continuous monitoring of bloom episodes. this article presents the satellite based algal bloom detection and monitoring service of esso-INCoIs for the Indian waters.

The authors are Project Scientist B, Scientist C and Scientist E respectively with Earth System Sciences sA Organisation-Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (ESSO-INCOIS) and are part of the Ocean Information and Forecast Service Group (ISG). [email protected]. The article should be cited as Baliarsingh S.K., A. Samanta and A. Lotliker, 2020. Monitoring of Algal Blooms in the Indian Seas, Geography and You, 20(6-7): 62-67 Photo Courtesy: NA Courtesy: Photo

GeoGraphy and you . 2020 63 hytoplankton or algae are microscopic glacialis, Noctiluca scintillans and Trichodesmium photosynthetic plants residing in the erythraeum. oceans. On the onset of favourable In the backdrop of short term as well as environmental conditions, the long term harmful effects of algal blooms, it is phytoplankton species grows by imperative to monitor such events. In addition, it several folds and the scenario is termed as an is necessary to understand the conducive factors, ‘algalP bloom’ (Anderson 1994; Hallegraeff 1995). spreading mechanism and the consequences The algal blooms often exert deleterious effects of algal blooms. In this context, ocean colour on the aquatic biota and deteriorate the ambient satellite remote sensing technology enables for water quality making it inhabitable for resident synoptic imaging and monitoring of algal blooms. organisms (Glibert et al. 2005, Gowen et al. 2012). Although, in-situ observations are most accurate, The prevalence of increased phytoplankton cells remotely sensed measurements are cost effective generate a large quantum of organic matter that and are able to detect the bloom quickly, providing subsequently depletes the aquatic oxygen and a synoptic scenario on a wide spatio-temporal disturbs the food chain dynamics (Baliarsingh scale (Dwivedi et al. 2015, Baliarsingh et al. 2017). et al. 2016). In several scenarios, the algal bloom Specific bio-optical algorithms are required to episodes result in mass mortality of fish and retrieve algal bloom information from ocean the bio-magnification of organic toxins reach colour satellites and several such schemes have the topmost level of the food chain (Ferrante been developed. et al. 2013). In general, the algal bloom events ESSO-Indian National Centre for Ocean exerting a harmful impact on the ecosystem are Information Services (INCOIS), an autonomous infamously acronymed HAB—Harmful Algal body under the Indian ministry for earth sciences Bloom. Anthropogenic impacts and multitude of has initiated the Algal Bloom Information natural phenomena are frequently triggering algal Service (ABIS) using ocean colour remote sensing blooms in different regions of the world’s oceans. technology with a suite of appropriate bio-optical Increasing frequency of algal bloom is a major algorithms (Fig. 1). The ABIS, launched February concern for fishermen, fishery resource managers, 24, 2020 disseminates composite maps of bloom, researchers, ecologists, pollution control boards its proxies and ancillary products on a daily basis. and environmentalists. In addition, four hot spots—coastal waters off The Indian coastal and open ocean waters Kerala and Gopalpur in Odisha, Gulf of Mannar have also been experiencing multiple events of and open ocean waters of Northeastern Arabian algal blooms (D’ Silva et al. 2012, Baliarsingh et Sea are closely monitored. al. 2016, Lotliker et al. 2018). Bloom of dominant The ABIS uses a set of environmental proxies for phytoplankton taxonomic groups such as detection and monitoring of algal bloom events. diatoms, dinoflagellates and cyanobacteria have Among such proxies, chlorophyll-a, the dominant been reported in the Indian waters. Among photosynthetic pigment of phytoplankton—an different phytoplankton groups, the frequent index of phytoplankton biomass, is used as the bloom forming species are Asterionellopsis primary parameter. The second most important

64 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 Fig. 1: Schematic of algal bloom information service

Subscription Roll L3 Binned products Data download module archive module Standard mapped image generation module Start and Processing module initialise Binning module L3 binned GAC>SMi (L1A>L1B>L2) (L2 LAC > L3 GAC)

Bloom Chl-a Chl-a (ABi) SSt Bloom index index module index SMi = Standard Mapped image GAC = Global Area Phyto Coverage Phyto class class LAC = Local Area Coverage module L1A = Level 1A processing Decision L1B = Level 1B processing making ABis L2 = Level 2 processing (using suitable SSt Anomaly 30 day atmospheric Chl-a Anomaly anomaly correction scheme generation and bio-optical SMi generation module algorithm) for bloom L3 = Level 3 processing information (space binning) nanoplankton Picoplankton Phyto size class module

Microplankton Ancillary information Dissemination Sector wise module statistics

19 Feb 2020 19 Feb 2020 19 Feb 2020 eSSo - india national Centre for ocean information Services (An Autonomous Body under the Ministry of earth Sciences, Govt. of india)

hindi home Annual reports Vacancies tenders Library Feedback sitemap Contact us

organisation services Data & Information ocean observations Modelling & research satellite oceanography ItCo ocean

Algal Bloom Information home services ABIs Products o Chlorophyll-a Concentration ABI algorithm service (ABIs) sea surface temperature in C Chlorophyll-a Concentration Algal Bloom Information services ABIs 19 Feb 2020 19 Feb 2020 19 Feb 2020 ABIs overview Latest Bloom Information Latest Bloom Information Last updated : 19 Feb 2020 hotspot statistics 19 Feb 2020 Data Products

recent occurrences Bloom Index Chlorophyll-a Concentration Anomaly sea surface temperature Anomaly technical Document

Case studies 19 Feb 2020 19 Feb 2020 19 Feb 2020

Case study-I

Case study-II

Green Noctiluca red Noctiluca Diatoms Phytoplankton Class/species Pico Plankton Abundance Nano Plankton Abundance

19 Feb 2020 19 Feb 2020

Bloom Non Bloom 29,680 sqKm spread of green Noctiluca in North eastern Arabian sea(NeAs), No Information for green N No Information for red Noctiluca in North eastern Arabian sea(NeAs), No Information for Noctiluca in 90,640 sqKm spread of Diatoms North easter Arabian sea(NeAs), No Information spread of Diatoms

Bloom Non Bloom Mico Plankton Abundance Bloom Pixel

Parameter Description (unit) north eastern Kerala Coast Gulf of Mannar Gopalpur Coast Parameter Description (unit) north eastern Kerala Coast Gulf of Mannar Gopalpur Coast Arabian Sea (neAS) (KRL) (GoM) (GPLPR) Arabian Sea (neAS) (KRL) (GoM) (GPLPR) Average Biomass Concentration 5.663 0.1105 0.5688 0.2483 Average Sea Surface temperature 0.359 -0.3554 0.1684 0.4625 (mg/m3) Anomaly (oC) Standard Deviation of Biomass 9.254 0.04266 0.6849 0.09404 Spread of Green Noctiluca (sq km) 29680 -999 112 -999 Concentration (mg/m3) Spread of Red Noctiluca (sq km) -999 -999 -999 -999 Average Sea Surface temperature 24.73 28.83 28.23 26.58 Spread of Diatoms (sq km) 90640 -999 496 16 (oC) Picophytoplankton Abundance (%) 23.33 46.14 40.83 44.13 Standard Deviation of Sea Surface 0.7545 0.9924 1.074 0.7565 temperature (oC) nanophytoplankton Abundance (%) 17 34.36 30.25 32.79 Average Bloom index -0.01062 -0.6519 -0.7401 -0.7105 Microphytoplankton Abundance(%) 59.67 19.51 28.92 23.07 Standard Deviation of Bloom index 0.3815 0.1143 0.1074 0.05468 Status Average Biomass Concentration 1.239 -0.0576 -0.0793 -0.1029 Anomaly (mg/m3)

ABIS uses satellite images of various algal bloom species, combines it with the ocean colour Warning (Bloom Pixels)> 75% Normal (Bloom Pixels)> 50% Status Colour remote sensing technology under a suite of appropriate bio-optical algorithms, to detect Watch (Bloom Pixels >50% & <75% No Data widespread events.

GeoGraphy and you . 2020 65 Fig. 2: ABIS dissemination web page for February 19, 2020 bloom event

eSSo - india national Centre for ocean information Services eSSo - india national Centre for ocean information Services (An Autonomous Body under the Ministry of earth Sciences, Govt. of india) (An Autonomous Body under the Ministry of earth Sciences, Govt. of india)

hindi home Annual reports Vacancies tenders Library Feedback sitemap Contact us hindi home Annual reports Vacancies tenders Library Feedback sitemap Contact us

organisation services Data & Information ocean observations Modelling & research satellite oceanography ItCo ocean

Algal Bloom Information home services ABIs Products Algal Bloom Information home services ABIs Products service (ABIs) service (ABIs) Algal Bloom Information services ABIs Algal Bloom Information services ABIs ABIs overview ABIs overview Latest Bloom Information Latest Bloom Information Latest Bloom Information Data Products Last updated : 19 Feb 2020 19 Feb 2020 19 Feb 2020 19 Feb 2020 hotspot statistics hotspot statistics 19 Feb 2020 Data Products Data Products

recent occurrences recent occurrences

technical Document technical Document

sea surface temperature in oC Chlorophyll-a Concentration Chlorophyll-a Concentration ABI algorithm Case studies Case studies 19 Feb 2020 19 Feb 2020 19 Feb 2020 Case study-I Case study-I

Case study-II Case study-II

Bloom Index Chlorophyll-a Concentration Anomaly sea surface temperature Anomaly

19 Feb 2020 19 Feb 2020 19 Feb 2020

Bloom Non Bloom 29,680 sq km spread of green Noctiluca in North eastern Arabian sea(NeAs), No Information for green N No Information for red Noctiluca in North eastern Arabian sea (NeAs), No Information for Noctiluca in Green Noctiluca red Noctiluca Diatoms Pico Plankton Abundance 90,640 sq km spread of diatoms North easter Arabian sea(NeAs), No Information spread of diatoms Phytoplankton Class/species Nano Plankton Abundance 19 Feb 2020 19 Feb 2020

hotspot statistics Parameter Description (unit) north eastern Kerala Coast Gulf of Mannar Gopalpur Coast Arabian Sea (neAS) (KRL) (GoM) (GPLPR) 3 Average Biomass Concentration (mg/m ) 5.663 0.1105 0.5688 0.2483 Bloom Non Bloom Standard Deviation of Biomass 9.254 0.04266 0.6849 0.09404 Mico Plankton Abundance Bloom Pixel Concentration (mg/m3) Download Data (19 Feb 2020) Average Sea Surface temperature (oC) 24.73 28.83 28.23 26.58 Standard Deviation of Sea Surface 0.7545 0.9924 1.074 0.7565 o temperature ( C) recent occurrences

Average Bloom index -0.01062 -0.6519 -0.7401 -0.7105 Insufficient/No Data Normal Watch Warning Standard Deviation of Bloom index 0.3815 0.1143 0.1074 0.05468 Average Biomass Concentration 1.239 -0.0576 -0.0793 -0.1029 NeAs Anomaly (mg/m3) KrL Parameter Description (unit) north eastern Kerala Coast Gulf of Mannar Gopalpur Coast Arabian Sea (neAS) (KRL) (GoM) (GPLPR) GoM Average Sea Surface temperature 0.359 -0.3554 0.1684 0.4625 Anomaly (oC) GPLPr Spread of Green Noctiluca (sq km) 29680 -999 112 -999 Spread of Red Noctiluca (sq km) -999 -999 -999 -999 Spread of Diatoms (sq km) 90640 -999 496 16 7-Feb-20 1-Feb-20 3-Jan-20 2-Feb-20 3-Feb-20 8-Feb-20 5-Feb-20 6-Feb-20 9-Feb-20 4-Feb-20 27-Jan-20 17-Feb-20 31-Jan-20 11-Feb-20 21-Jan-20 19-Jan-20 12-Feb-20 22-Jan-20 24-Jan-20 2 13-Feb-20 13-Feb-20 25-Jan-20 28-Jan-20 15-Feb-20 26-Jan-20 18-Feb-20 20-Jan-20 19-Feb-20 29-Jan-20 30-Jan-20 16-Feb-20 Picophytoplankton Abundance (%) 23.33 46.14 40.83 44.13 10-Feb-20 nanophytoplankton Abundance (%) 17 34.36 30.25 32.79 Microphytoplankton Abundance(%) 59.67 19.51 28.92 23.07 neAS - north eastern Arabian Sea Status KRL - Kerala coast

Warning (Bloom Pixels)> 75% Normal (Bloom Pixels)> 50% GoM - Gulf of Mannar Status Colour Watch (Bloom Pixels >50% & <75% No Data GPLPR - Gopalpur coast

Copyright @ esso - India National Centre for ocean Information services (INCoIs), Govt of India. All rights researved.

ABIS data is shared on the ESSO-INCOIS and widely used by various stakeholder groups such as fisheries institutes, pollution monitoring agencies, fishermen associations, oceanographic research organizations and coastal aquaculture industries.

physical indicator is the sea surface temperature enlisted frequent bloom forming in the Indian (SST). In general, cooler SST is associated with waters include the species Noctiluca scintillans. upwelling or convective mixing of the water These occur as two colour variants or ecotypes column. Phytoplankton growth promoting which the ABIS is capable of identifying as well as nutrients from the subsurface layers are injected discriminating. ABIS also provides information into the upper, well lit zone of the ocean through on phytoplankton size classes (PSC) exhibiting these mixing processes. Therefore, SST in significant variability during non-bloom and combination with chlorophyll-a is a suitable proxy bloom conditions (Sahay et al. 2017). for bloom detection (Wei et al. 2008). In addition, In addition, 30 day anomalies of the ABIS uses a bloom index (BI) which is helpful in chlorophyll-a manifests in a contrast in the determining the bloom/non-bloom condition phytoplankton biomass production between especially in optically complex waters (Ahn and bloom and non-bloom conditions. Similarly, Shanmugam 2006). Subsequent to detection the SST anomaly also exhibits distinguishable of bloom, ABIS also provides information on variation in magnitude conducive to mixing the causative group/species of phytoplankton during bloom events. ABIS uses MODISA Level-1 and is equipped with a scheme for detection of data and processes it all the way up to Level-3 ubiquitous phytoplankton group ‘diatom’. HAB standard mapped image (SMI) for Chl-a, Chl-a

66 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 ABI, SST as well as at Level-4 SMI for Bloom Dwivedi R., M. Rafeeq, B. R. Smitha, K. B. Index, Phyto Class, PSC and anomaly products. Padmakumar and L. C. Thomas, L. C. 2015. ABIS products are disseminated through the Species Identification of Mixed Algal Bloom in ESSO-INCOIS website for various stakeholders The Northern Arabian Sea Using Remote Sensing including the targeted user agencies of fisheries Techniques, Environmental Monitoring and institutes, pollution monitoring agencies, Assessment, 187(2): 51. Available at: https://bit. fishermen associations, oceanographic research ly/2SffD8O organisations and coastal aquaculture industries Ferrante M., O. C. Gea, M. Fiore, V. Rapisarda and (Fig. 2). Genesis, background, operational scheme C. Ledda. 2013. Harmful Algal Blooms in The and web dissemination of ABIS are detailed in Mediterranean Sea: Effects on Human Health, the technical document by A Samanta and his Euromediterranean Biomedical Journal, 8(6): 25- colleagues (Samanta 2019). 34. Available at: https://bit.ly/2KHsg8i Glibert P. M., S. Seitzinger, C. A. Heil, J. M. Way Forward Burkholder and M. W. Parrow. 2005. The Role As a future course of action, ESSO-INCOIS plans of Eutrophication and The Global Proliferation to incorporate sea surface current and wind in of Harmful Algal Blooms: New Perspectives and the physical proxy of ABIS to track down bloom New Approaches, Oceanography, 18(2): 198–209. movement. In addition, inclusion of different Available at: https://bit.ly/2Y8bMhD modelling components such as hydrodynamic, Gowen R. J., P. Tett, E. Bresnan, K. Davidson optical and ecological parameters are being and A. McKinney. 2012. Anthropogenic planned to build a robust decision support system. Nutrient Enrichment and Blooms of Harmful Species specific bloom detection is also envisioned Phytoplankton, Oceanography and Marine in the ABIS to deliver bloom advisories. Biology: An Annual Review, 50: 65–126. Available at: https://bit.ly/2yS35x3 references Hallegraeff G. M. 1995. Harmful algal blooms: a Ahn Y. H. and P. Shanmugam. 2006. Detecting The global overview, in Hallegraeff G. M., D. M. Red Tide Algal Blooms From Satellite Ocean Anderson, A. D. Cembella and H. O. Enevoldsen Color Observations in Optically Complex (ed.) Manual on Harmful Marine Microalgae, Northeast-Asia Coastal waters, Remote Sensing Paris: UNESCO. of Environment, 103(4): 419-437. Available at: Lotliker A. A., S. K. Baliarsingh, V. L. Trainer, M. https://bit.ly/3aI584m L. Wells and C. Wilson. 2018. Characterization Anderson D. M. 1994. Red tides. Scientific of Oceanic Noctiluca Blooms Not Associated American, 271: 52-58. Available at: https://www. With Hypoxia in The Northeastern Arabian Sea, scientificamerican.com/article/red-tides/ Harmful Algae, 74: 46-57. Available at: https:// Baliarsingh, S.K., A.A. Lotliker, V.L. Trainer, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29724342 M.L. Wells, C. Parida. 2016. Environmental Samanta A., A. A. Lotliker, S. K. Baliarsingh, Dynamics of Red Noctiluca scintillans Bloom Nair Balakrishnan T.M. 2019. Algal Bloom in Tropical Coastal Waters, Marine Pollution Information Service, Hyderabad: ESSO-INCOIS. Bulletin, 111(1–2): 277–286. Available at: Sahay A., S. M. Ali, A. Gupta and J. I. Goes. 2017. https://bit.ly/2Ybu0ib Ocean Color Satellite Determinations of Baliarsingh S. K., R. M. Dwivedi, A. A. Lotliker, K. C. Phytoplankton Size Class in The Arabian Sea Sahu and T. S. Kumar. 2017. An Optical Remote During The Winter Monsoon, Remote Sensing of Sensing Approach for Ecological Monitoring Environment, 198: 286-296. Available at: https:// of Red and Green Noctiluca Scintillans, bit.ly/2ySq4sc Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, Wei G., D. Tang and S. Wang. 2008. Distribution 189(7): 330. Available at: https://bit.ly/2xfktM3 of Chlorophyll and Harmful Algal Blooms D’Silva M. S., A. C. Anil, R. K. Naik, P. M. D’Costa. (HABs): A Review on Space Based Studies in 2012. Algal Blooms: A Perspective From The The Coastal Environments of Chinese Marginal Coasts of India, Natural Hazards, 63: 1225-1253. Seas, Advances in Space Research, 41(1): 12-19. Available at: https://bit.ly/2VL9OlM Available at: https://bit.ly/3bOdmsU

GeoGraphy and you . 2020 67  INCOIS | ServICeS

By Nagaraja Kumar & Nimit Kumar

Fish-finding

A concerted effort towards developing species-specific advisories for some important species that are commercially valuable but under exploited are being made by ESSO-INCOIS.

68 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 Fish-finding From Space The IndIan Journey the Potential Fishing zones (PFz) advisory provided by hyderabad based esso-iNCois has made a remarkable difference in the lives and livelihoods of the fishing community across the indian coast. it has resulted in significant savings in terms of time, effort and fuel spent in looking for fish shoals, thus improving profitability and the socio-economic status of fisherpersons. this advisory is useful in the reduction of Co2 emissions too, indirectly contributing towards protection of the environment. this article provides an overview of the pathbreaking pfz technology that has set a milestone in the reliability of marine advisory and forecast services.

The authors are Scientist E , in-charge of Marine Fishery Advisory Services (MFAS) Programme; and, Project Scientist, MFAS Programme respectively, at ESSO-INCOIS. [email protected]. The article should be cited as Kumar N. and Nimit K., 2020. Fish-finding From Space : The Indian Journey, Geography and You, 20 (6-7): 68-75 Photo Courtesy: roozbeh-eslami Courtesy: Photo

GeoGraphy and you . 2020 69 oday space technology has evolved to a level that man made satellites, buzzing in orbits around the earth, easily pinpoint every tiny detail. These satellites provide scientists a peek into the myriad mysteries of the universe, leadingT to gradual evolution of technologies that make a remarkable impact on everyday life. In our own country, the Hyderabad based Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), a unit of the Earth System Science Organisation (ESSO) under the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), has made a transformative effect on the lives of fishing community by providing Potential Fishing Zones advisory services across the Indian coast. The service is operational 365 days a year except during the ‘marine fishing ban’ imposed by respective governments or when fishing is found to be unsafe, due to high waves in the ocean. The pfz advisories, generated mainly on satellite data, are released in real time. Initially developed by Space Applications Centre (SAC), Ahmedabad, this technology was transferred to INCOIS that implemented it on operational mode with improved data processing techniques and automation using geographic information system (GIS) and image processing tools. The Marine Fishery Advisory Services (MFAS) programme of ESSO-INCOIS uses remotely sensed sea surface temperature (SST) and chlorophyll concentration to identify productive areas in the ocean. SST, which indicates the conducive environment for fish, is retrieved from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) sensor onboard The importance of the USA’s NOAA series satellites and from the MetOp series satellites of the European Space potential fishing Agency (ESA). The chlorophyll concentration, indicating the availability of food for fish, is zones lies not in identified with the help of the Indian remote sensing satellite, Oceansat-2, the Aqua satellite terms of getting from Moderate resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) series of National Aeronautics and more fish, but in Space Administration (NASA), USA and Visible conducting efficient Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) sensor onboard the Suomi National Polar-orbiting fishing operations Partnership (Suomi NPP). Keeping in view the linguistic diversity of the in an environment country, these advisories are made available in all coastal languages and coastal measurement friendly way. units. The Indian coast is divided into 14 sectors—Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka,

70 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 Fig. 1: PFZ Advisory issued on April 29, 2020 PFZ advisory for Gujarat Advisory validity: One day from April 29, 2020 Legend Fish landing centres Bathymetry PFZ lines Current(m/s) India EEZ India coast Indian EEZ Districts Pakistan EEZ

Kerala, South Tamil Nadu, North Tamil Nadu, South Andhra Pradesh, North Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal, Andaman-Nicobar and Lakshadweep islands for the purpose of providing the advisories. A pfz advisory, provided in the form of a map and text, is disseminated to the users through an array of channels ranging from fax to Android based mobile applications (Fig.1). A pfz map contains information about major landing centres, bathymetry, latitude and longitude grids in addition to the identified fishing zones. Due to the dynamic nature of the ocean, the predicted fishing zones keep shifting from their original locations. In order to predict their possible shifting, surface current speed and direction data is overlaid on the map and fishermen are advised accordingly. As fishing communities are less literate, pfz text is provided in a multi-lingual format—Gujarati, Marathi, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Oriya, Bengali along with Hindi and English, that gives information about the latitude, longitude values, depth of the ocean at pfz locations, as well as angle, direction and distance from the landing centres/lighthouses. shoals based on bird congregation over the sea, difference in the colour of the ocean, reflection In what way is the organisation adding value to in the night, bubbles breaking on the surface, the traditional skills of fisherfolk? muddy and oily water and calm sea and specific About nine million people living along the Indian smells. However, the main challenge in using coastline, spanning over 8100 km, depend on their traditional knowledge is to physically fishing for their livelihood. Often, the search for venture into the sea, without knowing where fish consumes considerable time and resources, exactly these indicators can actually be used. So, increasing the cost and leading to low profitability fisherpersons may end up with less or no catch, for the fishing community. Generally, fishermen while following this method. Hence, a reliable rely on the power of their intuition and traditional and timely advisory/forecast on the potential knowledge, to locate the fish. They search for fish zones of fish aggregation becomes essential. Such

GeoGraphy and you . 2020 71 Fig. 2: Tuna PFZ Advisory issued on March 15, 2020

Maharashtra Yellowfin Tuna advisory validity: One day from March 15, 2020

Legend Fish landing center Tuna PFZ SSHa(cm) Current(m/s) India EEZ Bathymetry India coast Non Tuna zone India Districts

123 115 108 100 93 85 77 70 Maximum fishing depth (m) advisory/forecast has multiple benefits for the fishing community such as reduction in time, efforts and fuel spent in looking for fish shoals, thus improving profitability and consequently, the socio-economic status of fisherpersons. Also, this advisory is useful in the reduction of CO2 emissions that are caused by burning of fossil fuel. The pfz advisory is a cumulative outcome of the concerted efforts of specialists from earth, space and fishery sciences in collaboration with the stakeholders of coastal states. Utilising the remotely sensed data available from various satellites, this service enlightens the fisherpersons on a daily basis (in their respective local languages) about most probable locations of fish aggregation with specific references to 1223 fish landing centres along the Indian coast.

How is vital information disseminated to the fishing community? Earlier disseminated using just telephone or fax, pfz advisory now utilises various modes of communication such as the Internet/website, email and Web-GIS. Web-GIS is an advanced tool provided by ESSO-INCOIS since 2002, enabling disaster warnings and alerts, not only in text but the users to access their advisories of interest. also accompanied by satellite images, animations Later, ESSO-INCOIS designed and installed and short films. electronic display boards (EDBs) at major fishing Nowadays, mobile services play a major role harbours which have made a significant impact as most fishermen have access to them. In fact, in the delivery chain. These EDBs have been the mobile phone has become an effective tool steadily updated and their latest version facilitates for dissemination of pfz advisories directly to dissemination of information about ocean state, the user. ESSO-INCOIS, in collaboration with

72 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 various partners (NGOs, industry, government and GAGAN systems. The GAGAN-based and private firms) has initiated various mobile dissemination system has more advantages in based dissemination mechanisms such as terms of Indian Ocean wide footprint and is thus Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS), mobile believed to be the best solution. applications—Fisher Friend Mobile App (FFMA), mKRISHI, voice messages/audio advisories/MMS Do the fishermen engage with scientists to and SMS in local languages. In addition to this, apprise them about their specific needs? the advisories are disseminated through local Feedback from the fisherpersons received during cable TV networks, Doordarshan, All India Radio, awareness campaigns has led to many milestones community radio stations, FM radio stations, and in the journey of the pfz advisory services. local newspapers. Presently, INCOIS is providing INCOIS has made several improvements based pfz and Ocean State Forecast (OSF) services on user demand and requirements. For instance, through SMS to about 0.7 million (6.8 lakh) users’ feedback pointed out that though pfz marine fishermen in India. advisory provides information on the availability With a view to educate the fishermen about the of fish, it gives fisherpersons no information on the effective use of these advisories, ESSO-INCOIS species of fish available at the particular location. has partnered with village knowledge centres/ The lack of information about all species and resource centres and other NGOs for value their aggregation zones in the seas, constrains addition to the technology. This partnership fisherpersons in selecting appropriate method further facilitates downstream dissemination of to conduct targeted fishing for a particular sized information to the massive fishing community. species. In terms of sustainability as well, it is In partnership with the industry and NGOs, essential to guide fishermen on the type of species a helpline system has also been put in place so that adequate sized nets and gear can be used. in some states to help the fishing community The feedback led to a focus on developing species- benefit from the ocean information and advisory specific advisories for some important species that services being generated and disseminated by are commercially valuable but under exploited. ESSO-INCOIS. The helpline system is available The first species-specific pfz advisory service on a 24x7 basis to provide necessary support to was developed to identify Yellowfin tuna the users in terms of clarification on services such (Thunnus albacares) (Fig. 2). The challenging as pfz advisories, OSF, tsunami early warnings, task in the development of this service was the high-wave alerts, cyclone information, GPS lack of available details on habitat preferences utilisation, fish processing techniques, market of Yellowfin tuna and the lack of fishing data. related information and government schemes. An ESSO-INCOIS conducted hindcast experiments expert consortium is also linked to this helpline using the geo-referenced tuna catch details and system to address any specific queries raised by the related remote sensing data. The organisation the users. On an average about 100 queries are used these parameters to initiate and provide answered through the helpline system. Enthused tuna advisories to the fishing community at by its success, fishermen have voiced their demand Visakhapatnam and the Marine Products Exports to make the helpline numbers toll free and extend and Development Authority (MPEDA) on an it to all the coastal states. experimental basis. Subsequently, based on their While motorised fishing vessels, with an feedback and the preliminary validation results, average of 10-15 people onboard, venture into these advisories were made operational November deeper seas, their non-motorised counterparts 2010 onwards. operate up to 12 nautical miles (nm) from the shore. In both cases, dissipating mobile signal What has been the overall impact of strength puts important livelihood and life saving these services? information beyond the reach of fisherfolk. In The impact of ESSO-INCOIS services on order to disseminate relevant information to all improving the lives and livelihoods of the users out at sea, ESSO-INCOIS in partnership fishing community is manifold. Fisherpersons with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) widely use the pfz service for successful fishing and Airports Authority of India (AAI) is working operations. Gilakaladindi village in the Krishna on satellite-based dissemination through NAVIC district of Andhra Pradesh is a case in point as

Geo graphy and You . 2020 73 On an average, the utilisation of pfz advisories m has reduced the time spent on fishing by 30-70 per cent, resulting in a significant positive impact on the bottom lines and earnings of the beneficiary fishing communities. Photo Courtesy: Juda Courtesy: Photo

74 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 it has witnessed a rapid change in the fishing The total diesel saved due to use of pfz advisories practices since November 2011 after the initiation by these 69 experiments was found to be 20,665 l of tuna pfz advisories in the village by the M S and the total reduction in CO2 emission was 55.1 Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), a tonnes. If all the 2,200 purse/ring seiners, 20,257 collaborator of ESSO-INCOIS. As a consequence, gillnetters in the country utilise the pfz advisories, the villagers abdicated bottom trawling about 17,965.6 tonnes of CO2 emission can be techniques in favour of gillnetting, which is more reduced for every tonne of fishes caught (Masuluri environment friendly. MSSRF founder, Professor et al. 2018). The concept of lab-to-land services M S Swaminathan, an agricultural scientist of introduced by ESSO-INCOIS, for the benefit of repute, aptly summarises the feelings of thousands the fishing community, is unique in itself when of fisherpersons across India, when he opines, “pfz compared to other developed countries. advisory has gone a long way in giving a new lease of life to the fishing community”. What lies ahead? The validation of the pfz advisories shows that Despite the immense utility of pfz advisories, the net profits are usually increased two to four fishing still remains a challenging task for the times due to the marked increase in catch per vessels that go for multi-day voyages. To cater to unit effort (CPUE). Major portion of this profit this, INCOIS has developed a proof of concept is derived from fuel savings due to elimination solution for direct to boat dissemination of of the search time for fishing grounds. On an pfz and OSF services. In addition, INCOIS is average, the utilisation of pfz advisories has developing bio-geochemical models to forecast reduced the time spent on fishing by 30-70 per parameters that help to develop operational cent. A by product of the usage of pfz advisories fishery forecasts for next 3-5 days. Another is the lowering of emissions due to the lower challenge is developing species specific consumption of fuel for fishing operations. advisories for commercial fisheries in addition The average reduction of CO2 emission was to tuna. On this front, INCOIS has initiated the found to be 0.16 tonnes for every single tonne of necessary research and development efforts to fishes caught. provide hilsa and oil sardine fishery advisory A market study conducted by the National services. Envisioning that Ecosystem-based Council for Applied Economic Research Fishery Advisory Services (EFAS) is the future, (NCAER 2015) shows that the environmental the organisation has taken up initiatives such effect measured in savings in diesel consumption as regional Primary Productivity Modelling computed as carbon credits would work out to an and Front-to-Fish, which will further enhance annuity of INR 362000 million or a present value the utility of the MFAS services in the of around INR 2.84 trillion, besides reduction coming decades. of 910 million tonnes in terms of carbon dioxide emission, over the 25 year useful life (NCAER references 2015). In another study by the Central Marine Masuluri N. K., P. Nair, N. Pillai and T. S. Kumar. Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI), conducted 2018. Environmental Benefits Due to Adoption in Raigad, Maharashtra during 2013-2014, it of Satellite-based Fishery Advisories, Fishery was observed that with 15 per cent adoption Technology, 55: 100-103. Available at: https://bit. level, fisherpersons can save up to 9,00,000 l of ly/2yWWBgp fuel based on 30 per cent less consumption, that National Council of Applied Economic Research translates to savings of INR 47 million (468 lakh) (NCAER). 2015. Economic Benefits of Dynamic calculated at INR 52 per litre; diesel subsidy Weather and Ocean Information and Advisory savings of INR 11 million (107.6 lakh) and lesser Services in India and Cost and Pricing of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission of approximately Customized Products and Services of ESSO- 2412 tonnes (Singh and Singh 2016). From 69 NCMRWF & ESSO-INCOIS: NCAER, New Delhi: validation experiments conducted off Kerala, India. Available at: https://bit.ly/3d5nhL3 the use of pfz advisories resulted in enormous Singh V. V. and D. K. Singh. 2016. mKRISHI saving of diesel that varied from 21.5 to 1293.5 l, Fisheries–A Blue Ocean Innovation, Marine resulting in reduction of CO2 emission from 3.45 Fisheries Information Services, CMFRI, 230: 3-6. to 0.06 tonnes for every tonne of the fishes caught. Available at: http://eprints.cmfri.org.in/12072/

GeoGraphy and you . 2020 75  INCOIS | ServICeS

The technology by INCOIS has made fishermen confident and they can now venture into the sea knowing where fish shoals lie. This has helped transform the lives and livelihoods of marginal fisher families.

76 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 By R Harikumar, M Nagarajakumar & T M Balakrishnan Nair EmpowE r i n g seafarers of iNdia esso-the indian National Centre for ocean information services (esso-iNCois) provides a host of economic and environmental benefits to the coastal populace through a wide variety of services—ocean state forecast, potential fishing zone and the tsunami early warning system. Ground surveys conducted by various agencies among the beneficiaries corroborate the efficacy of esso-iNCois’ services.

ndian National Centre for Ocean speed, wind speed and their directions play a Information Services (INCOIS) is an major role in aiding fisherfolk to make effective autonomous organisation of the Indian decisions that help prevent loss of life and property. government, under the Ministry of Earth Significantly, a majority of fisherfolk admitted Science. It provides ocean information and that timely decisions taken with the aid of osf advisory services to coastal communities, industry, information helped in minimising losses. As on Igovernment agencies and scientific bodies such April 28, about 0.7 million exclusive registered as ocean state forecasts and potential fishing zone mobile users receive osf and potential fishing advisories for better operational planning and safe zones (PFZ) services in their own local language. navigation at sea for better fish catch. Some recent There are also many users, who depend on surveys, conducted by various agencies among ESSO-INCOIS’ website, mobile apps, WhatsApp, the beneficiaries throw light on the economic, Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, Radio, TV and environmental and safety benefits of the services Electronic Display Boards deployed at coasts to provided by ESSO-INCOIS in both quantitative receive these services. and qualitative terms. This article shares some of Speaking about the efficacy of ESSO-INCOIS the findings of these surveys. services, Antony, 28, a fisherman from Colachel, Tamil Nadu said, “The helpline facility for The benefits of ocean state forecastosF) ( delivering osf, channelised through Reliance Forecasts of wave height, swell height, current Foundation (RF), plays a significant role in our _worldwide

Ck The authors are Scientist D in-charge, Ocean State Forecast Services (OSF); Scientist E, in-Charge, Marine Fishery tri

Pa Advisory Services (MFAS); and, Scientist G, Head, respectively in the Ocean Information and Forecast Service Group (ISG) of ESSO-Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (ESSO-INCOIS). harikumar@ incois.gov.in. The article should be cited as Harikumar R., M. Nagarajakumar and T. M.B.Nair, 2020. Empowering

Photo Courtesy: Courtesy: Photo Seafarers of India, Geography and You, 20(6-7): 76-79

GeoGraphy and you . 2020 77 lives. My team can now proceed for any fishing operations by saving on fuel. Fishers’ efficiency and activity without any fear.” capacity have increased manifold and so have the Kishor Bhoinkar, a progressive fisherman of incomes of boat owners and the wages of fishing Bharadkhed in the Raigad District, Maharashtra, crew members. agreed, “I never venture into the sea when the wind Pertinently, the surveys mirror the findings, speed is above 35 km per hour. Earlier, we used to corroborated/validated by the academia in waste considerable money venturing and returning collaborative studies. Some of such endeavours empty handed because of unexpected rough sea were undertaken by Jadavpur, Andhra, conditions. But now the information through Annamalai, Anna, Karnataka and Dr Babasaheb osf has helped us to substantially save in terms of Ambedkar Marathwada University, in diesel, ice for storing fish and manpower expenses collaboration with research institutions such as every month .” Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Central Boat owners too are a happy lot. Says N Dharma Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI), Rao, General Secretary, Kakinada Mechanised Central Agriculture Research Institute (CARI), Fishing Boat Owners Welfare Association, Kerala State Remote Sensing and Environment “Thanks to the advisory provided by ESSO- Centre (KSREC) and National Institute of INCOIS during cyclones, we are able to save Oceanography. Specific validation experiments hundreds of lives in addition to properties worth comprising engagement of two boats, one going millions of rupees. We wish the services were there for fishing in the notified area and the other going when the Kakinada area faced a severe cyclone, for fishing elsewhere, have consistently shown that causing massive losses in November 6, 1996.” the beneficiaries’ net profits increased by two to Corporate too find osf useful. “The osf data/ five times due to the marked increase in catch per images are very accurate which keep us updated unit effort (CPUE). Major portion of the profits during sailing. The ESSO-INCOIS reports are comes from savings on the cost of fuel due to the very important for our passenger vessels sailing avoidance of multiple searches for fishing grounds. in low pressure areas such as the Andaman Sea,” On an average, pfz advisories also reduced the time said Master of MV Swarajdweep of Shipping spent on fishing by 30 to 70 per cent. Corporation of India. In 2012, M S Swaminathan Research Foundation The Indian Navy too has a word of praise for (MSSRF) conducted a study on "Impact of the osf. “It has been seen during recent operations INCOIS Scientific Forecast Services on Improving that the forecasts provided by INCOIS have closely Lives and Livelihoods of Fishing Communities matched with the sea condition. It has been well across Tamil Nadu and Puducherry". The study appreciated by our operation coordinators,” underscores that the majority of fisherfolk have observed Navy Commander Mangal Kakkad registered an increase in net income ranging between INR 1000 and 50000 due to the use of The benefits of potential fishing pfz services. Among the beneficiaries, 40 per cent zones advisories are small craft fisherfolk who have experienced Fishing based on the pfz advisory along with an average (weighted) increase of income worth gillnetting has significantly contributed in INR 16,000. Overall, the findings suggest that improving the socio-economic conditions of pfz service is actively being used by small craft fishers. Majority of the fishers, who hitherto have fisherfolk as a means to improve their livelihood. been practising the bottom trawling method of As M S Swaminathan, founder, MSSRF, fishing, have upgraded their fishing technique Chennai, aptly puts it, “The technology developed based on pfz advisory and shifted to gillnetting. by the osf Division of ESSO-INCOIS has made A case study carried out in the Gilakaladindi the fishermen confident of wave heights at Village in Krishna District, Andhra Pradesh, different distances from the shoreline. They now points out that fishermen can now access high venture into the sea with great confidence and yielding fishing grounds by upscaling their fishing also approximately know where the fish shoals practice to gillnetting. Advantages include locating lie. This has helped transform the lives and large fish shoals without involving waste of time livelihoods of small-scale fisher families and has and human energy and more importantly, the led to the spread of science and technology for technology brings down the expenses of fishing artisanal fisheries movement.”

78 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 I get OSF and PFZ updates from INCOIS. The information has helped me earn more than INR 50,000 in just one trip—Ch. Bujj, 28, fisherman, Chandrabhaga Nolia Sahi, Puri, Odisha

I trust the OSF advisories. They not only help me in making the right decisions, but also save the input costs otherwise incurred for diesel, ice, ration and labour, and most importantly, safeguard the lives of the marine community.—Sashikanta I have been receiving Nayak, 48, traditional fisherman, information on osf, pfz, high Chudamani, Bhadrak, Odisha. wave alerts from ESSO- INCOIS since May 2016 through RF mobile voice SMS platform. The advisory helps me to decide as the information is, generally, quite accurate— Kasinath Das, 35, fisherman, In the second week of September Chaumukh, Balasore, Odisha 2016, just before venturing into the sea from Mirkarwada Jetty near Ratnagiri, I checked my phone for the OSF. A voice message alerted fishers not to venture into the sea due to bad weather. But, many fishers were readying for the voyage. I rushed to alert them saved lives, damage of boats and fuel. —Ashish Vasave, 30, Sakhari Agar, Ratnagiri, Maharashtra Sketches of the beneficiaries of INCOIS' services

A similar view was expressed by Karnan, considerable catch from every effort and the Salangarai of a fishing village in the Cuddalore GPS gives us the right directions to reach the district, Tamil Nadu, one of the beneficiaries using targeted fishing zones,” said Chokka Harish, 21, the species-specific advisories issued by ESSO- a fisherman from YSR Colony of Manginapudi INCOIS, “I was surprised when I got 50 kg of tuna village, Krishna district, Andhra Pradesh, fish in just one trip from the location suggested by recounting a similar experience. the pfz advisory. This motivated me to regularly On the whole, the surveys underline that follow their helpline and now I do not venture into osf and pfz advisories of ESSO-INCOIS have the sea unless I check the advisories.” greatly helped the fishermen community in Said Sudevan, a marine fisherman from improvement of their livelihood through Alappuzha, Kerala, “By dialling the helpline I got enhanced economic benefits as well as safety. The the update about pfz while fishing in the sea up to organisation has also helped them adopt new 25 km, which aided me in making a big catch of technologies such as smartphones, making them two tonnes of fish in a single trip.” digitally empowered. Another benefit of the “I registered on RF’s services and started usage of the advisories is the reduction in carbon receiving voice messages on pfz and osf from emissions due to lowering of fishing effort in the ESSO-INCOIS. This has empowered me searching for fish aggregating areas. All this has and my fellow fishers in making fishing a brought about a refreshing, positive impact on profitable business. We now return home with the environment of the coastal region.

GeoGraphy and you . 2020 79  INCOIS | ServICeS

By T V S Udaya Bhaskar, L Rose, B Rohit, R K Jha, M Preetham & S S C Shenoi InternatIonal Training Centre for operaTional oceanography

The authors are head, Training and Programme Planning and Management Group (TPG), scientist C (TPG), scientists B (TPG) and Director, respectively, Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS). [email protected]. The article should be cited as Bhaskar T.V.S.U., L. Rose, B. Rohit, R.K. Jha and M. Preetham, 2020. International Training Centre for Operational Oceanography, Geography and You, 20(6-7): 80-85

80 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 ESSO-Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (ESSO-INCOIS) has for a while been providing innovative services such as fishing zone advisories, ocean state forecast and tsunami early warning. Further in 2012, to build capacity in the field of ocean services and operational oceanography, the Ministry of Earth Sciences set-up an International Training Centre for Operational Oceanography (ITCOocean) at INCOIS. The benefits were also envisaged to reach the Indian Ocean rim countries and other developing nations. In 2015, ITCOocean was recognised as a Regional Training Centre (RTC) by the Ocean Teacher Global Academy (OTGA) of the International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE). The centre has state-of-the-art infrastructure, academic curriculum, administrative units, international hostel facility and expert faculty from the field of oceanography. The initiative was appreciated by Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission which lead to its recognition as Category 2 Center (C2C) in 2017 under the UNESCO. It is therefore now a pioneer institute in the field of operational oceanography, offering various certificate programmes ranging from days to weeks and will eventually look to provide diploma programme in the field of operational oceanography.

GeoGraphy and you . 2020 81 ince decades, the science of oceans in observing the ocean using instruments and has progressively evolved from a remote sensing platforms and also assimilating basic understanding of different these into ocean models. The end products of aspects of oceans to predicting their such synthesis that reach the stakeholders broadly behaviour. This can be attributed include natural hazards warning (tsunami, ocean to the advancement in ocean observations, state, cyclone landfall and harmful algal blooms), enhancementS in understanding theoretical identifying potential fishing zones, optimal and aspects of the oceans and progress in ocean safe navigation route advisories, monitoring of modelling capabilities. This transition was also hazardous oil spills and forecasting the climate motivated by an increasing demand from a change. The primary takers for such information variety of ocean users. Accordingly, the modern are the fishers, port and shipping agencies, marine day ocean science has changed and ‘operational industries and administrative authorities who oceanography’ is now an integral part of make optimal use of operational oceanography ocean science and management. Operational services for planning, implementation and oceanography has evolved by integrating scientific mitigation. knowledge encompassing different disciplines Since its inception, the ESSO-Indian National of science and technology. This involves skills Centre for Ocean Information Services

The sprawling campus of the International Training Centre for Operational Oceanography (ITCOocean) at ESSO-INCOIS is equipped with state-of-the-art instructional and infrastructural facilities.

82 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 (ESSO-INCOIS) has been providing innovative within Indian Ocean Rim (IOR). INCOIS is one ocean services. Further to these established of the very few centres involved in generating oceanographic services, ESSO-INCOIS also and disseminating value added services, wide promotes capacity building activities, to train ranging ocean service products to variety and generate skilled manpower in the field of of users starting from fisher folk to marine ocean services and operational oceanography. industries. ESSO-INCOIS focuses on tsunami This plan resonated with the call by the early warning, marine fishery advisory, ocean Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission state forecast during severe weather events, coral (IOC) to undertake capacity building activities bleaching alerts, coastal geospatial applications and resulted in the establishment of a centre and updates on climate indices. As the institute in 2012, which became operational in 2013 at is abreast with advancements in satellite INCOIS. The Indian Ministry of Earth Sciences oceanography, ocean modelling capabilities (MoES) consequently set up an International and data from vast in-situ observation networks Training Centre for Operational Oceanography deployed and maintained by it, ESSO-INCOIS’ (ITCOocean) at the ESSO-INCOIS to extend manpower is skilled in assimilating observations the benefits of operational oceanography to into models to produce accurate ocean the developing nations and the countries falling information services to end users. Photo Courtesy: Courtesy: Photo

GeoGraphy and you . 2020 83 The Genesis of iTCoocean Recognising the skill levels of ESSO-INCOIS, UNESCO's IOC endorsed the operational oceanography training centre, ITCOocean by signing a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with ESSO-INCOIS in 2013 during the 27th session of the IOC Assembly in Paris. This was later followed up by signing a Letter of Intent (LoI) between MoES and UNESCO in November 2014 stating that ITCOocean was “to be developed into a UNESCO Category 2 Centre” under the auspicious of UNESCO, interalia, for promoting effective exchange of data and information on natural hazards, develop courses for early warning systems for disaster risk reduction and generate scientific methods for capacity development programmes in geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing. In 2015, the Ocean Teacher Global Academy (OTGA) of the International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE) recognised ITCOocean as a Regional Training Centre (RTC) to offer training for the benefit of IOR Countries. Following this, in December 2017, the Union Cabinet of the Indian government approved the establishment of the International Training Centre for Operational Oceanography as a Category-2 Centre (C2C) of UNESCO in the INCOIS premises. The benefits of operational oceanography and of the new methods of capacity development was thereafter agreed to be shared with the IOR, as well as African countries bordering the Atlantic Ocean and small island Various courses countries to cope with the emerging challenges. objectives of iTCoocean conceived under ● Provide advanced training in operational the ITCOocean oceanography for young scientists, technical persons and decision makers/officials from the targets university IOR countries, Africa, small island countries and Europe on a regular basis, with a calendar of students who events prepared well in advance and notified on the ITCOocean website. would like to pursue ● Define regional and global problems and priorities, the solution of which requires their career in multi-level cooperation, assisting the identification of training, education and mutual (operational) needs, particularly those related to the IOC oceanography. programmes. ● Provide training on generation of data emanating from in-situ and satellite platforms

84 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6-7 no. 144-145 and its transmission to operational centres, planned can be viewed at https://incois.gov.in/ data reception and data processors in real time. ITCOocean/index.jsp. Training is also provided for data usage in A state-of-the-art e-class room with a capacity models and forecasts and its dissemination to of 48 participants has also been established. The end users within the shortest possible time. e-class room provides high quality local training, ● Promote excellence in integrated immersive tele-presence, distance learning and multidisciplinary oceanography to improve distance teaching experience. Up to nine similar the understanding and management of class rooms can be connected simultaneously natural resources. in high definition. Up to 50 class room users ● Help scientists in preparedness for nowcasting or desktop/ smart phones/ IPad users can be and forecasting the ocean behaviour, addressing joined to the ongoing training sessions of the the role of ocean science in delivering classroom through real presence desktop (RPD) critical information to safety, commerce and software (available in Windows and Mac) and environmental protection. real presence mobile (RPM) app (available in ● Promote activities of the centre, of IOC’s role android and IOS). At present, infrastructural in marine and coastal matters, raise public facilities such as administrative units, classrooms awareness concerning the need for sustainable and international hostels are available for the management of the sea and coastal areas and participants. introduce the benefits of national and regional Various courses conceived under the cooperation approach. ITCOocean targets university students who ● Organise assistance in mobilising human, would like to pursue their career in (operational) financial and material resources to respond to oceanography. Priority is to be given to students the needs of coastal countries of the region in mainly from Indian Ocean rim countries, staff dealing with emergency situations triggered by of operational oceanographic centres and related marine natural hazards. facilities, staff of government departments ● Make recommendations to the governing bodies involved with oceanographic services and of the region on policy matters related to the marine activities and decision makers who mandate of the centre and formulate proposals seek familiarisation with oceanographic data for the protection and sustainable development and data services. People involved in ocean of the Indian Ocean and its coasts. state forecasting, hazard related warnings, and By adhering to the above mentioned objectives, coastal planners, as also staff of other operational the ITCOocean centre will contribute to the oceanographic centres, are to be prioritised. The capacity building activities of many IOC ITCOocean centre is currently offering short term programmes—climate change, Indian Ocean courses, spanning from 1 to 4 weeks. A ‘certificate Global Ocean Observing System (IOGOOS), of participation’ is offered on completion that is Second International Indian Ocean Expedition jointly issued by INCOIS and UNESCO/IOC. (IIOE-2), implementing Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) Regional Way Forward Committee for Central Indian Ocean In addition to the planned courses in collaboration (IOCINDIO) decisions, natural hazard with UNESCO/IOC, ITCOocean is in the process warning and mitigation pertaining to marine of signing an Memorandum of Understanding areas. Further the centre will also support the (MoU) with various state and central universities establishment of the marine protected areas and for providing courses. As on date the centre has enable multi-agency participation in the World successfully signed a MoU with Swami Ramanand Ocean Day (June 8) thereby raising awareness Teerth Marathwada University (SRTMU), about the oceans. Nanded, Maharashtra for conducting a certificate So far, over 1177 scientists including 914 from course in ‘operational oceanography’ which is set India and 263 from 48 other countries have to begin its first batch from August, 2020. The goal been trained at the centre in various aspects is to make this a centre of excellence in the field of operational oceanography. A list of courses of operational oceanography, making it the first conducted, persons trained and future courses choice for future oceanographers.

GeoGraphy and you . 2020 85  INCOIS | PhOtO feature

By Celsa Almeida Project Scientist, ESSO-INCOIS In addition to capacity building efforts and user trainings ESSO-INCOIS also organises activities to increase public awareness and attract potential users through interactive displays at exhibitions, social media, open house programmes and special visiting slots. ReachingOut

86 2020 . GeoGraphy and you vol 20, issue 6 no. 144 ESSO-INCOIS participates in several public exhibitions each year rural development officers. For students, in addition to visiting slots independently and through the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES). organised every month, special ‘Open House’ programmes are held At expos through interactions with scientists, videos, instruments, on specific days—ESSO-INCOIS Foundation Day on February 3, models, posters, flyers, mementos and live demos, people can see MoES Foundation Day on July 27, International Tsunami Awareness the progress of operational oceanography, its societal benefits and Day on November 5 and as a precursor to the annual India Interna- how it may positively influence their lives directly or indirectly. tional Science Festival around September/October.

Visitors to ESSO-INCOIS The Visitor Experience The organisation accommodates a substantial number of visitors Scientists at ESSO-INCOIS conduct highly interactive tailor-made that mostly comprise of government employees/officials and audio-visual cum demo sessions based on the age and educational students. Each year government employees from India and abroad background of the visitors. There are separate briefings on satellite arrange field visits to ESSO-INCOIS. These visitors include disaster data, ocean state forecasts and potential fishing zone advisories and management officers, professors, defence and police cadre and the internationally recognised state-of-the-art Tsunami Centre.

@INCOISofficial @ESSO_INCOIS @INCOISofficial Hyderabad ESy: ESy: rt OtO COu Ph

GeoGraphy and you . 2020 87 Website  BookS heaving, stretching and spicing Modes: Climate variability national oceanic and atmospheric in the ocean (springer administration oceanography) www.noaa.gov/ By rui Xin huang National Oceanic and Cover: Hardcover Atmospheric Administration isBn-13: 978-9811529405 is a scientific agency under published: 2020 the United States Department pages: 393 of Commerce. NOAA focuses price: USD 14849.40 on daily weather forecasts, he book focuses on the heaving in nature. The author tries monitoring climate, severe ocean climate variability to explain that though analysis of storm warnings, coastal T and its fundamentals. The author isopycnals has been widely used in restoration, management discusses ‘the vertical movement the domain of climate study, it is of fisheries and supporting of isopycnal (isothermal) layers’— much more accurate to study the marine commerce— heaving and stretching. Isopycnals isopycnal layers. This is because providing the government, are usually represented graphically ‘climate signals are examined in citizens and emergency to help envision the different layers terms of changes of layer depth, planners with reliable of water in the ocean or gases layer thickness, layer temperature/ information. in the atmosphere in ‘a similar salinity, spicity and others’. manner to how contour lines are The book is important for all argo used in topographic maps to help oceanography researchers and for www.argo.ucsd.edu/ visualise topography’. A huge those with an interest in Argo provides a quantitative part of ocean climate variability is ocean physics. description of the upper ocean and its changes, the ocean climate variability patterns from months to harmful algal Coastal decades, including freshwater Blooms: a resources storage and transport and Compendium economics heat. The documentation of desk reference and ecosystem ‘decadal climate variability’ is By sandra e. valuation the primary goal of Argo. shumway, Joann By J. Walter Milon M. Burkholder, and sergio alvarez The intergovernmental steven l. Morton Cover: Paperback oceanographic Cover: Hardcover isBn: 978-3-03928-016-2 Commission of unesCo isBn: 978-1118994658 published: 2019 www.ioc-unesco.org/ published: 2018| Pages: 696 pages: 104 The IOC-UNESCO, price: USD 109.46 price: USD 48.02 established in 1960 is the only competent organisation physical Fundamentals for ocean and marine science oceanography of estuarine within the United Nations and Climate physical (UN) system. IOC-UNESCO By Kris oceanography provides a focus for other Karnauskas By luiz Bruner de agencies and organisations Cover: Hardcover Miranda et al. within the UN, regarding isBn: Cover: Hardcover ocean science, global 978-1108423861 isBn-13: 978-9811030406 tsunami warning systems published: 2020 published: 2017 and observations and pages: 350 pages: 480 data exchange. price: USD 64.99 price: USD 85.72 (e-copy)

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[1] RNI No. DELENG/2001/5002