Scientists will acquire the expertise to prevent rain, help in preventing flood-drought incidents

New Delhi: Due to wind and water changes, sometimes floods occur in the country due to heavy rains, sometimes drought conditions occur due to lack of rain in some areas. The central government has launched Mission Mosam to deal with such extreme weather events. This will develop the skill of making rain and stopping rain along with making accurate predictions about the weather. Under Mission Mosam, the country's scientists will also be able to prevent sky lightning and cloudburst incidents. The government has allocated Rs 2,000 crore for the first phase of Mission Mosam. The first phase will run till March 2026. In the second phase, the number of satellites and aircraft will be increased to increase the monitoring capacity. According to the Ministry of Earth Sciences, weather forecasting is challenging due to the complexity of atmospheric processes and the limitations of current observation and model resolution. The low data associated with observation and the current model of weather forecasting makes it difficult to make accurate predictions about weather events at the local scale in India. There, the occurrence of heavy rainfall and drought is increasing at local level due to wind and water changes. This creates challenges of flood and drought. Cloud bursting, sky lightning and storm-storm are such events related to the weather, about which there is very little understanding in India. According to the ministry, to deal with this situation, there is a need for research on all weather-related activities taking place inside and outside the clouds, on the ground, in the upper atmosphere over the oceans and in the polar regions. For this, high frequency observation technique is required. Apart from this, the current model horizon resolution will have to be increased from 12 km to six km to predict the weather on a small scale. With this, accurate predictions can be made about the weather at the panchayat level. Weather management at the cloud chamber M Ravichandran, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, said that under the mission, a cloud chamber will be set up at the Indian Institute of Metrology, Pune for the study of clouds in the context of rising temperatures. He said that we will artificially create clouds in the lab and do research. This will help the scientists to understand these processes in a better way and they will know that what kind of clouds can be seeded and rain can be produced? What kind of material should be used for seeding and how much seeding is needed to increase or prevent rain? Seeding is a process in which a special material is added to the clouds to make it rain. Ravichandran said that our goal in the next five years is to artificially increase the rainfall and control the rainfall. After this we will focus on other weather phenomena like lightning. When asked about the need for weather management, Ravichandran said that floods could occur in Delhi due to continuous rain. Because of this if we have the technology to stop the rain, we can stop the rain by seeding a little more in the clouds. Similarly, in such areas, where drought conditions often arise, we can save people from drought by making it rain. Use of cloud seeding technique Cloud seeding technology is being used to make rain or prevent rain in America, China, Australia and United Arab Emirates.