A thick layer of toxic smog enveloped the national capital on Saturday as air quality deteriorated sharply, prompting the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) to invoke the strictest curbs under Stage IV of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) across Delhi-NCR.
Delhi government mandates 50% work from home for offices and private establishments under GRAP stage three due to severe air pollution. Essential services are exempted.
'Nobody asked us to work on this. It was on our own that we decided to embark on this journey.'
An explainer on cloud seeding, the technique used to artificially modify clouds to produce more rainfall, including its process, history, potential environmental hazards, and considerations for conducting experiments.
Delhi is preparing for its first artificial rain through cloud seeding to combat air pollution. A trial run was successful, and the first rainfall is expected on October 29 if weather conditions are favorable.
The first cloud-seeding trial has been conducted in parts of Delhi, including Burari and Karol Bagh areas, aimed at inducing artificial rain to tackle air pollution.
In Professor Sulochana Gadgil's passing, India has lost a scientific giant, a fierce intellect, and a compassionate soul, remembers Dr Madhavan Nair Rajeevan.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said a country can aim for high achievements only if it has a big vision and asserted that technology upgradation should be to empower the poor. Speaking after launching via video link three PARAM Rudra supercomputers, developed indigenously under National Supercomputing Mission, Modi asserted that today's India is carving new opportunities in the infinite sky of possibilities. Modi said his government has taken steps to ensure research in technology benefits the common man.
The conditions that lead to landslides, including soil texture, soil moisture and slope are known, and it is important to put all this knowledge into an operational system, he said.
As weather patterns grow more unpredictable due to climate crisis, India is taking a giant leap with "Mission Mausam" to improve weather understanding and forecasting through expanded observation networks, better modeling and advanced tools like AI and machine learning.
BMC officials will hold a meeting through video conferencing with representatives of India Meteorological Department, and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology and Mekorot officials on Thursday to draw an action plan in this regard. The move comes at a time when Mumbaikars are suffering from water cuts due to deficient rainfall.
He said scientists have noticed a trend of very deep cloud systems developing over the southeast Arabian Sea, and added that sometimes, these systems intrude into the land, like in 2019.
The same development would benefit the progress of the north-east monsoon, also known as the 'reverse monsoon'.
Beating the United States, China has made a giant leap in the field of supercomputers.
A joint research programme between the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) and the University of Reading, UK on `Science of Regional Climate Change, Variability and Impacts`, has been selected for a `Major Award` under the UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI).
Delhi's air quality improved for the second consecutive day on Thursday, with the Air Quality Index (AQI) recorded in the "moderate" category at 165. This marks a significant improvement from the "poor" category recorded on Tuesday. Several restrictions imposed under Stage 4 of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) were lifted, but some restrictions under Stage 2 remain in place. The Decision Support System (DSS) has not been updated since Friday, with technical difficulties hindering the update of data for the last six days.
ISRO chairman S Somanath said the success gave the space agency "greater confidence," as the GSLV will be next deployed in the NISAR mission, a collaborative effort with the US' NASA.
Rainfall in the week ended August 29 was about six per cent more than normal and the best weekly rains in the southwest monsoon season this year. This helped ease concern on drought across several parts of the country.
The DEFRA project with MoEF is yet to identify a research institute in India and the bidding process is to start now, Coyne added. However some green groups in India look at this rush for climate change research in India as a ruse to promote technologies like genetic engineering.
Most climate models indicate that surface air temperature will increase with rise in green house gases over the Indian region, which would be accompanied by an increase in monsoon activity.
Squandering the relief due to rain, Delhi recorded a jump in pollution levels and a smoky haze returned on Monday after people flouted the ban on firecrackers on Diwali night.
Delhi's 24-hour average air quality index (AQI) stood at 248 on Saturday.
'The intensity and frequency of heatwaves will be much higher than in previous years over Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha.'
As the air pollution in Delhi-NCR ameliorated over the last two days, the Centre's air quality panel Sunday directed authorities to lift the ban on plying of non-BS VI diesel light motor vehicles in the region and the entry of trucks into the capital imposed under the final stage of the Graded Response Action Plan.
An improvement in the wind speed November 21 onwards might bring air pollution levels down.
Surface temperatures have increased rapidly during the past century, leading to an increase in the frequency and intensity of tropical storms in the Arabian Sea, reports Sanjeeb Mukherjee.
Moody's Ratings on Tuesday said India's growing water shortage can disrupt farm and industry sectors and is detrimental to the credit health of the sovereign as rising food inflation and decline in income may spark social unrest. It said decreases in water supply can disrupt agricultural production and industrial operations, resulting in inflation in food prices and hence can be detrimental to credit health of sectors that heavily consume water, such as coal power generators and steel-makers.
Cyclone 'Biparjoy', the first storm brewing in the Arabian Sea this year, has rapidly intensified into a severe cyclonic storm, with meteorologists predicting a 'mild' monsoon onset over Kerala and 'weak' progress beyond southern peninsular under its influence.
According to forecasting agencies, the city is set to record its best air quality for the day after Diwali since 2015 on Tuesday.
A minister said the country had 7% less rain than normal.
In the 30-year period between 1986 and 2015, temperatures of the warmest day and the coldest night of the year have risen by about 0.63 degree Celsius and 0.4 degree Celsius, respectively.
'AI can be very useful for making analysis and especially making city-based local forecasts.'
Climate change has hampered the ability of the forecasting agencies to accurately predict severe events and weather bureaus across the world are focusing on augmenting the observational network density and the weather prediction modelling to improve predictability, India Meteorological Department (IMD) Director General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra has said.
'Keeping the global temperature below not just 1.5 degree Celsius, even 2 degree Celsius is beyond our reach now. Both are impossible.'
People living in the national capital and in states such as Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are more likely to contract COVID-19 due to prolonged exposure to high concentration of PM 2.5, according to a new pan-India study.
Installed at a cost of Rs 450 crore in Pune and Noida, the two supercomputers are set to fundamentally alter the weather forecasting scenario in India by enabling the IMD to forecast severe weather conditions up to the sub-district or block level.
Data spanning the years 1951 to 2014 show that temperature and pressure conditions at specific locations in the Arctic region during the pre-monsoon period correlate with the Indian summer monsoon rainfall, points out Charu Bahri.
Other Graded Response Action Plan measures like ban on diesel generators, hot mix plants, stone crushers and brick kilns, however, continue to remain in place.
With increasing temperature, the toxic ozone levels, which cause a number of health problems especially for asthmatics, have breached the permissible limits in the city, the MET department said on Thursday.
Rain for the central and northwestern parts a concern.
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