Two UK varsities, University of East Anglia (UEA) and University of Reading in collaboration with the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) in Southampton lead the Bay of Bengal Boundary Layer Experiment (BoBBLE). Collaborators in India comparises of the Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (CAOS), the Indian National Centre for Climate Information Services (INCOIS), the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF) and the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT).
M Rajeevan the ministry of Earth Sciences Secretary said that on June 24th the Indian Research Vessel Sindhu Sadhana carrying scientists will sail from Chennai He also said that once out in the ocean, they will release seven underwater gliders to measure ocean properties such as temperature, salinity and current. At the same time to take atmospheric measures, collaborators from a partner project led by the University of Reading with collaborators across the UK and India will use a state of the art aircraft. It is hoped that the forecast of the arrival of the Indian monsoon will be more accurate than before, after the combined results of the large scale scientific campaign.
It is important for a region’s economy to receive forecast of the precise timing and location of the rains. Especially more so as India is an agricultural country and our ever increasing population requires more water resourses. Adrian Matthews, who is also the lead researcher Prof from UEA’s School of Environmental Sciences, said the Indian monsoon is notoriously hard to predict. It is a very complicated weather system and the processes are not understood or recorded in science. We will be combining oceanic and atmospheric measurements to monitor weather systems as they are generated. Nobody has ever made observations on this scale during the monsoon season itself so this is a truly ground-breaking project. He also said what we have now are imperfect models for predicting monsoon rainfall when it hits land, so this will create better forecasts.
