Annual Report 2011-2012 Earth System Science Organization Ministry of Earth Sciences Government of India Ministry of Earth Sciences : Annual Report 2011-2012 i Contents 1 An Overview 1 2 Atmospheric Science and Services 7 3 Polar Science 16 4 Ocean Science and Services 25 5 Ocean Survey and Resources 32 6 Ocean Technology 38 7 Coastal and Marine Ecology 43 8 Climate Change Research 49 9 Disaster Support 54 10 Extramural and Sponsored Research 59 11 Awareness and Outreach programmes 61 12 International Cooperation 63 13 Official language Implementation 66 14 Representation of SCs/STs/OBCs in Government Services 67 15 Representation of Persons with Disabilities in Government Services 68 16 Citizens’ Charter 69 17 Budget and Account 70 18 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India 71 19 Administrative Support 75 20 Staff Strength 76 21 Awards and Honours 77 22 Publications 79 23 Abbreviations 92 Ministry of Earth Sciences : Annual Report 2011-2012 iii 1 An Overview The Earth System Science Organization (ESSO) and climate change science and services. The ESSO is operates as an executive arm to implement policies and also responsible for development of technology towards programmes of the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES). the exploration and exploitation of marine resources in It deals with four branches of earth sciences, viz., (i) a sustainable way. Ocean Science & Technology (ii) Atmospheric and Climate Science and (iii) Geoscience and (iv) Polar The ESSO contribute to various sectors, viz., Science and Cryosphere. The ESSO has been addressing agriculture, aviation, shipping, sports, etc, monsoon, holistically various aspects relating to earth processes disasters (cyclone, earthquake, tsunami, sea level for understanding the variability of earth system and for rise), living and non-living resources (fishery advisory, improving forecast of the weather, climate and hazards. poly-metallic nodules, gas hydrates, freshwater, etc), The ESSO was established in October, 2007 as a virtual coastal and marine ecosystems and climate change, organization, subsequent to the setting up of the MoES, underwater technology. Secondly, MOES is also which was formed in 2006 by bringing all the agencies responsible for defining and deploying satellite-based, of meteorological and ocean development activities airborne and in-situ atmospheric, ocean and lithosphere under one umbrella, recognizing the importance of observing systems which act as backbone for achieving strong coupling among various components of the earth, the objectives. These policies/programmes are being viz. atmosphere, oceans, cryo-sphere and geo-sphere. pursued through its centres, viz., autonomous bodies and subordinate offices. The institutions (Fig.1.1), viz. The ESSO primarily aimed to develop and improve India Meteorological Department (IMD), National capability to forecast, weather, climate and hazard related Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting phenomena for societal, economic and environmental (NCMRWF), Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology benefits including addressing aspects relating to polar (IITM), National Centre for Antarctica and Ocean Research (NCAOR), National Institute of Ocean Fig.1.1 Organization Chart of MoES Ministry of Earth Sciences : Annual Report 2011-2012 1 Technology (NIOT), Indian National Centre for Ocean advisory services to farming community and fishermen Information Services (INCOIS), Centre for Marine have reaped enormous economic benefits. The NCAER Living Resources (CMLRE) and Integrated Coastal study was aimed at assessing the economic benefit and and Marine Area Management (ICMAM) were grouped impact of ESSO’s weather (agro-met), fishery advisory under the ESSO which operates through the ESSO services, cyclone warning service, and public Weather council, an apex body to formulate policies and plans, service. The economic benefit has been estimated by and provide program directions for the Centres/Units the NCAER at approx. Rs.50,000 crores and Rs.34,000 and review the implementation of programmers. crores per year for the Agromet and Fishery Services, respectively. The overall vision of the ESSO is to excel in knowledge and technology enterprise for the earth system science Significant achievements of the ESSO for the period realm towards socio-economic benefit of the Indian sub- under various fields are outlined as below. continent and in the Indian Ocean region. It has three major objectives: 1.1 Atmospheric Science and Services • Provide scientific and technical support for both academic and applied research in Earth System District-level agro-meteorological advisory service sciences as a whole comprising the atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere and the geosphere, with A quantitative district-level agro-meteorological particular reference to the Indian sub-continent advisory service covering 560 districts, has been made and the surrounding oceans as well as the Polar operational for farmers in partnership with a number Regions. of Central Government Ministries and organizations, state level institutions, private agencies, NGOs, • Provide the Nation with the best possible services progressive farmers and media. This service comprise in forecasting the monsoons and other weather/ of 5 day weather forecast and advisory proposed out climate parameters, ocean state including early agricultural practices. About 30,00,000 lakhs farmers warnings to natural disasters like storm surge, have subscribed for the information through mobile for earthquakes, tsunamis and other phenomena planning their agricultural activities. through well integrated programs. Modernization of meteorological Services • Support science and technology development for exploration and exploitation of ocean resources Atmospheric Observing Systems through state-of-the-art (living and non-living), ensuring their sustainable technology (AWS, ARG, DWR, GPS sonde) with high utilization. bandwidth communication systems has been set up. Over 1000 systems (541 AWS and 557 ARGs) in various part One of the major activities has been development and of the country for real-time monitoring meteorological formulation of 12th Five Year Plan proposals, which parameters have been installed. Nine Doppler Weather has been accomplished through the Working Group Radars have been installed in various cities, viz., Delhi, constituted by the Planning Commission. The exercise Nagpur, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Patiala, Agartala, Patna, has been carried out based on zero-based budgeting Mohanbari and Mumbai. Computation facilities have which includes review of the ongoing schemes and been substantially augmented by commissioning of identification of new initiatives proposed for next five high performance computing systems in various centres years considering the current activities of the ESSO. which has a total combining capacity of 124 Tflops. Besides, selective implementation of important ongoing activities, over twenty new subjects have been proposed A complete end-to-end forecasting system that includes for implementation during 12th Plan primarily to address acquisition of data from various observing systems, the process studies and capacity building activities. The linkage to a central data processing system, their draft report has also been examined by the Steering utilization in the numerical models, providing a state- Committee of the Planning Commission. of-the-art IT based environment to all forecasters across the country has been installed. This involves A recent study conducted by the National Council of integration of all observations and overlaying them on Applied Economic Research (NCAER) on various 2 Ministry of Earth Sciences : Annual Report 2011-2012 model outputs and synoptic charts along with proper 1.2 Ocean Science and Information visualization and customized dissemination of weather Services forecast to the end users. Fisheries Advisories for identified Potential Fishing Global Forecast System (GFS T382/L64) having spatial Zones (PFZ): One of the major activities sustained resolution of 35 km was made operational incorporating during the year was uninterrupted generation and Grid Point Statistical Interpolation (GSI) scheme for dissemination of the multi-lingual PFZ advisories to global data assimilation for the generation of global the fishing community. PFZ advisories were issued for scale forecasts up to 7 days in advance. The horizontal 14 sectors namely, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, resolution of the Global Forecast System (GFS) was Goa, Kerala, South Tamil Nadu, North Tamil Nadu, increased from T254L64 (50km) to T382L64 (~35km) South Andhra Pradesh, North Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, along with assimilation of direct satellite radiances which West Bengal, Andaman Islands, Nicobar Islands, was subsequently made operational. Experimental Lakshadweep Islands. PFZ and OSF products were runs with higher resolution (T574L64( ~22km) GFS) made available to a large section of population along and unified model (N512L70 (25Km) with 4D VAR the Indian coast, through hundred Electronic Display assimilation models) have been carried out. Boards (EDB) Installed all along the Indian coast. Monsoon Prediction 2011: The southwest monsoon A state-of-the-art Oceansat-II ground station was prediction 2011 turned out to be 101% against the forecast established to receive and process the data from Ocean of 98% which was issued in April 2011. However the Color Monitor onboard Oceansat-II Satellite in real- prediction given in June was 95%. time. The ground station could cover