New Delhi, India and the US have decided to reactivate the Indian Ocean Observing System (IndOOS), a system of 36 moored buoys in the high seas to collect high-resolution ocean and atmospheric data for weather forecasting. There is a network.
The IndOOS series of buoys fell into neglect and disrepair during the years of the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to gaps in observational data considered critical by weather forecasters, especially since links between the Indian Ocean dipole phenomenon and the monsoon were established.
The reactivation of IndOOS was discussed during Earth Sciences Secretary M Ravichandran's meeting with US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Administrator Rick Spinrad last month.
The moored buoys are part of the Research Moored Array for the African-Asian-Australian Monsoon Analysis and Prediction (RAMA) program, which was born out of a collaboration between the Ministry of Earth Sciences and NOA in 2008.
Ravichandran said, “We want to reactivate RAMA."I discussed this with the NOAA chief during my visit to Washington in March."
NOAA has agreed to provide the equipment and India will give ship-time from July to restart the RAMA array, he said, adding that about 60-90 days of ship-time would be required for this purpose. .
In an article published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (BAMS), weather forecasters from several countries wrote that the pandemic disrupted deployment and maintenance cruises for observation arrays and consequently the supply chain for equipment procurement and renewal. Related problems also arose.
RAMA moored buoys are typically replaced once a year as sensors degrade during calibration and batteries drain. This servicing is typically performed on research vessels primarily in Indonesia, India, and South Korea in partnership with NOAA.However, these research cruises were halted for more than two years during the pandemic, with only one servicing cruise that circled around two buoys in the southwest Indian Ocean in January 2022, meteorologists wrote in the BAMS article. Was.
Ocean observations are essential for operational services such as cyclone warning, hurricane warning, initial conditions for monsoon prediction, climate forecasting, tsunami warning and detection of harmful algal blooms. RAM moored buoys also provide important validation data for the air-sea flux product and satellite measurements.
Marine observations are important in monitoring and forecasting the climate of the Indian Ocean and surrounding coastal countries. They also help maintain long-term continuous marine records, provide information about the health of the ocean and are important for establishing baselines for assessing natural variability and human-forced climate change.
The IndOOS series of buoys fell into neglect and disrepair during the years of the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to gaps in observational data considered critical by weather forecasters, especially since links between the Indian Ocean dipole phenomenon and the monsoon were established.
The reactivation of IndOOS was discussed during Earth Sciences Secretary M Ravichandran's meeting with US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Administrator Rick Spinrad last month.
The moored buoys are part of the Research Moored Array for the African-Asian-Australian Monsoon Analysis and Prediction (RAMA) program, which was born out of a collaboration between the Ministry of Earth Sciences and NOA in 2008.
Ravichandran said, “We want to reactivate RAMA."I discussed this with the NOAA chief during my visit to Washington in March."
NOAA has agreed to provide the equipment and India will give ship-time from July to restart the RAMA array, he said, adding that about 60-90 days of ship-time would be required for this purpose. .
In an article published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (BAMS), weather forecasters from several countries wrote that the pandemic disrupted deployment and maintenance cruises for observation arrays and consequently the supply chain for equipment procurement and renewal. Related problems also arose.
RAMA moored buoys are typically replaced once a year as sensors degrade during calibration and batteries drain. This servicing is typically performed on research vessels primarily in Indonesia, India, and South Korea in partnership with NOAA.However, these research cruises were halted for more than two years during the pandemic, with only one servicing cruise that circled around two buoys in the southwest Indian Ocean in January 2022, meteorologists wrote in the BAMS article. Was.
Ocean observations are essential for operational services such as cyclone warning, hurricane warning, initial conditions for monsoon prediction, climate forecasting, tsunami warning and detection of harmful algal blooms. RAM moored buoys also provide important validation data for the air-sea flux product and satellite measurements.
Marine observations are important in monitoring and forecasting the climate of the Indian Ocean and surrounding coastal countries. They also help maintain long-term continuous marine records, provide information about the health of the ocean and are important for establishing baselines for assessing natural variability and human-forced climate change.
