Weather experts are probing ways to make better use of automatic weather stations by linking up various states to provide improved and user-friendly forecast to farmers and the public.Experts from various government agencies and universities are set to meet in Thrissur on November 29 for a user-oriented workshop to thrash out details. Weather experts fro the ISRO, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), the Meteorology wing of the Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University and the Centre for Monsoon Studies (CMS) of the Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) will meet the KAU, Thrissur to work out details regarding improved supply of weather inputs.The intended idea is better co-ordination if weather inputs and using available resources to supply hourly weather forecasts in a way that it can be easily grasped by even the layman. In the first phase, inputs from weather stations in Kerala and Tamil Nadu will be pooled. Such inputs can be made public through dedicated website in subsequent stages.Recently the KAU had announced plans for linking up with CMS, ISRO and the IMD to provide 'AgroMet' services in a timely manner to farmers in the state. The idea now is to take it one big step forward.While the number of automatic weather stations in the country are set to go up in the years ahead, weather prediction mechanics and supporting technological infrastructure, remains something of a mystery to the general public.With public attention called towards climatic changes in the light of global warming, the new set-up is intended to close this gap and bring localiswed forecast of weather a mouse-click away.
The New Indian Express, 19th November 2008
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