Keeping the weather vulnerability and the recent cloud bursts in mind, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) is going to install a state-of-the-art X-Band dual polarised SSPA-based Doppler Weather Radar in Nagpur soon. Nagpur already has a S-Band Doppler Weather Radar (DWR) which is capable of getting weather data of 500 km distance. The existing DWR is situated in the premises of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport and run by the Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC), Nagpur. “According to Ministry of Earth Sciences, every metro city should have two DWRs and Nagpur city also comes under the same list of cities. In case of breakdown of one DWR, the other will be functional,” Dr Sreekanth T S, Scientist D and Head, Doppler Weather Radar and Climatology, Nagpur told ‘The Hitavada’.

 

In last few years, Nagpur city witnessed many cloud bursts during monsoon season and such weather conditions may cause technical glitches to the existing DWR. Hence, Nagpur required another DWR to handle such breakdown situation in near future, said Dr Sreekanth. As per the information, the existing DWR is a Chinese made radar whose maintenance is costly and time consuming. Few years ago, RMC faced a crisis when the existing S-Band DWR malfunctioned and it took almost 2 months time to get it back in duty.

 

To avoid such situation, this new X-Band DWR will be a boon for the city. “IMD has already submitted the order of the X-Band DWR and it will be a ‘Made In India’ radar which will be more efficient and provide more clear and accurate data than the existing S-Band DWR,” said the scientist. The system, with a freqquency range of 9300 to 9500 MHz, shall be capable of detecting and estimating meteorological parameters of severe weather phenomena. It is capable to capture data with the help of Radar Calibration station (Automatic Weather Station) which is situated 25-30 km away from the Radar Station.

 

The existing S-Band DWR is single band polarisation capable whereas the new one will have dual polarisation capability by simultaneous transmission and receive in both linear horizontal and vertical polarisation, said the scientist. The existing DWR can cover 250-300 km distance whereas the new radar will cover 100-150 kms with high resolution and accurate data than the S-Band DWR. The entire operation of the new X-Band DWR shall be fully computer controlled and remotely manageable and the data will be processed within 8 minutes to the command centre.