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India's 51st Doppler Weather Radar was inaugurated virtually at Sambalpur, Odisha by Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Earth Sciences Dr Jitendra Singh, in the presence of Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi.
The network has grown from 14 radars in 2014 to 51, and about 40 more are planned under Mission Mausam, which would take the total to roughly 81.
Odisha now has three Doppler Weather Radars - Gopalpur, Paradip and Sambalpur - with more announced for Balasore, Puri and Bhubaneswar.
The IMD, which marked its 150th anniversary, extends weather, cyclone and flash-flood forecasting and early-warning support to 13 neighbouring countries.
An ordinary weather radar returns how much precipitation lies in a given direction. A Doppler radar also reads the frequency shift in the returned pulse, so it measures how fast that precipitation is moving towards or away from the antenna - which is what exposes the wind circulation inside a thunderstorm or cyclone.
Simple Analogy: The same shift that makes a passing siren drop in pitch, read off raindrops instead.
Make India 'weather-ready and climate-smart' by expanding observation, improving Earth system models and building capability to manage fog, hail and rain.
Key: Approved by the Union Cabinet on 11 September 2024 with an outlay of Rs 2,000 crore over two years. Implemented primarily by three Ministry of Earth Sciences institutions - the India Meteorological Department, the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology and the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting - through next-generation radars, satellite systems with advanced sensors and high-performance supercomputers.
Deliver the world's finest-resolution operational weather model for the tropics, down to panchayat-scale forecasts.
Key: Launched 26 May 2025, developed by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune. It models weather on a 6 km grid against the earlier 12 km - finer than the 9-14 km of major global models - and runs on the Arka supercomputer (11.77 petaflops). A move to 3 km is planned by 2028 under Mission Mausam.
The national meteorological service - observation, forecasting, cyclone and flash-flood warning; established 1875 and the first of the three Mission Mausam implementing agencies.
Parent ministry for atmospheric, ocean and seismological services; created in 2006 and the nodal ministry for Mission Mausam.
MoES centre of excellence for numerical weather prediction in the medium range, and one of the three Mission Mausam implementing bodies.
United Nations specialised agency for international cooperation in meteorology, climatology and hydrology; it coordinates the free exchange of weather data on which regional early warning depends.
GS Paper 3 > Science and Technology; Disaster Management
General Awareness > Science and Government Missions
A radar that reads the frequency shift of the returned pulse to measure the radial velocity of precipitation, revealing wind circulation inside a storm rather than only its intensity.
An instrument package carried aloft by a balloon that transmits temperature, humidity, pressure and wind data from the upper atmosphere as it rises.
India's 6 km-resolution operational weather model, launched on 26 May 2025 and developed by IITM Pune on the Arka supercomputer.