India Meteorological Department (IMD) is an Indian agency of the
Ministry of Earth Sciences
The Ministry of Earth Sciences is an executive ministry of the Government of India, established on 29 January, 2006. It was formed through the reorganisation of the Department of Ocean Development and the assumption of administrative control ov ...
of the
Government of India
The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...
. It is the principal agency responsible for
meteorological observations,
weather forecasting
Weather forecasting or weather prediction is the application of science and technology forecasting, to predict the conditions of the Earth's atmosphere, atmosphere for a given location and time. People have attempted to predict the weather info ...
and
seismology
Seismology (; from Ancient Greek σεισμός (''seismós'') meaning "earthquake" and -λογία (''-logía'') meaning "study of") is the scientific study of earthquakes (or generally, quakes) and the generation and propagation of elastic ...
. IMD is headquartered in
Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...
and operates hundreds of observation stations across India and Antarctica. Regional offices are at
Chennai
Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...
,
Mumbai
Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...
,
Kolkata
Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...
,
Nagpur
Nagpur (; ISO 15919, ISO: ''Nāgapura'') is the second capital and third-largest city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is called the heart of India because of its central geographical location. It is the largest and most populated city i ...
,
Guwahati
Guwahati () the largest city of the Indian state of Assam, and also the largest metropolis in northeastern India. Dispur, the capital of Assam, is in the circuit city region located within Guwahati and is the seat of the Government of Assam. Th ...
and
New Delhi
New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...
.
IMD is also one of the six
Regional Specialised Meteorological Centres of the
World Meteorological Organisation. It has the responsibility for forecasting, naming and distribution of warnings for
tropical cyclone
A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system with a low-pressure area, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depending on its locat ...
s in the Northern Indian Ocean region, including the
Malacca Straits, the
Bay of Bengal
The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. Geographically it is positioned between the Indian subcontinent and the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese peninsula, located below the Bengal region.
Many South Asian and Southe ...
, the
Arabian Sea
The Arabian Sea () is a region of sea in the northern Indian Ocean, bounded on the west by the Arabian Peninsula, Gulf of Aden and Guardafui Channel, on the northwest by Gulf of Oman and Iran, on the north by Pakistan, on the east by India, and ...
and the
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Arabian Gulf, is a Mediterranean seas, mediterranean sea in West Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Arabian Sea and the larger Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.Un ...
.
History
In 1686,
Edmond Halley
Edmond (or Edmund) Halley (; – ) was an English astronomer, mathematician and physicist. He was the second Astronomer Royal in Britain, succeeding John Flamsteed in 1720.
From an observatory he constructed on Saint Helena in 1676–77, Hal ...
published his treatise on the Indian summer
monsoon
A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in Atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annu ...
, which he attributed to a seasonal reversal of winds due to the differential heating of the Asian landmass and the Indian Ocean. The first meteorological observatories were established in India by the
British East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...
. These included the Calcutta Observatory in 1785, the
Madras Observatory in 1796 and the
Colaba Observatory in 1826. Several other observatories were established in India during the first half of the 19th century by various provincial governments.
The Asiatic Society, founded in
Calcutta
Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...
in 1784 and in
Bombay
Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...
in 1804, promoted the study of meteorology in India.
Henry Piddington published almost 40 papers dealing with
tropical storms from Calcutta between 1835 and 1855 in ''The Journal of the Asiatic Society''. He also coined the term ''
cyclone'', meaning the coil of a snake. In 1842, he published his landmark thesis, ''Laws of the Storms''.
After a
tropical cyclone
A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system with a low-pressure area, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depending on its locat ...
hit
Calcutta
Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...
in 1864, and the subsequent
famines in
1866 and
1873 due to the failure of the monsoons, it was decided to organise the collection and analysis of meteorological observations under one roof. As a result, the India Meteorology Department was established on 15 January 1875.
Henry Francis Blanford was appointed the first Meteorological Reporter of the IMD. In May 1889,
Sir John Eliot was appointed the first ''Director General of Observatories'' in the erstwhile capital, Calcutta. The IMD headquarters were later shifted to
Shimla in 1905, then to
Pune
Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...
in 1928 and finally to
New Delhi
New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...
in 1944.
IMD became a member of the World Meteorological Organisation after
independence
Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state, in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the status of ...
on 27 April 1949.
The agency has gained in prominence due to the significance of the monsoon rains on
Indian agriculture. It plays a vital role in preparing the annual monsoon forecast, as well as in tracking the progress of the monsoon across India every season.
Organisation
The IMD is headed by the ''Director General of Meteorology'', currently Mrutyunjay Mohapatra. IMD has six ''Regional Meteorological Centre''s, each under a Deputy Director General. These are located in
Chennai
Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...
,
Guwahati
Guwahati () the largest city of the Indian state of Assam, and also the largest metropolis in northeastern India. Dispur, the capital of Assam, is in the circuit city region located within Guwahati and is the seat of the Government of Assam. Th ...
, Kolkata, Mumbai, Nagpur and New Delhi. There is also a Meteorological Centre in each state capital. Other IMD units such as Forecasting Offices, Agrometeorological Advisory Service Centers, Hydro-meteorological Office, Flood Meteorological Offices, Area Cyclone Warning Centers and Cyclone Warning Centers are usually co-located with various observatories or meteorological center.
IMD operates a network of hundreds of surface and glacial observatories, Upper Air (high altitude) stations,
ozone
Ozone () (or trioxygen) is an Inorganic compound, inorganic molecule with the chemical formula . It is a pale blue gas with a distinctively pungent smell. It is an allotrope of oxygen that is much less stable than the diatomic allotrope , break ...
and radiation observatories and
meteorological radar stations. Additional data is received from India's constellation of satellites, such as
Kalpana-1,
Megha-Tropiques and instruments on board the
IRS series and the
INSAT series of satellites.
Data and observations are also reported into the IMD network from meteorological instruments on board Indian merchant navy and
Indian Navy
The Indian Navy (IN) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the Navy, maritime and Amphibious warfare, amphibious branch of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Navy. The Chief of the Naval Staff (India), Chief ...
ships. IMD was the first organisation in India to deploy a message switching computer for supporting its global data exchange.
IMD collaborates with other agencies such as the
Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology,
National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting and the
National Institute of Ocean Technology.
IMD also operates seismic monitoring centres at key locations for earthquake monitoring and measurements.
Tasks
IMD undertakes observations, communications, forecasting and weather services. In collaboration with the
Indian Space Research Organisation, the IMD also uses the
IRS series and the
Indian National Satellite System (INSAT) for weather monitoring of the
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...
. IMD was first weather bureau of a developing country to develop and maintain its own satellite system.
IMD is one of the six worldwide
Regional Specialised Meteorological Centres of the Tropical Cyclone Programme of the World Weather Watch of the
World Meteorological Organization
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for promoting international cooperation on atmospheric science, climatology, hydrology an ...
.
It is regional nodal agency for forecasting, naming and disseminating warnings about
tropical cyclone
A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system with a low-pressure area, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depending on its locat ...
in the Indian Ocean north of the
Equator
The equator is the circle of latitude that divides Earth into the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Southern Hemisphere, Southern Hemispheres of Earth, hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, about in circumferen ...
.
New initiatives
The IMD launched System of Aerosol Monitoring and Research (SAMAR) in January 2016 to study the concentration of
Black carbon, radiative properties of
aerosol
An aerosol is a suspension (chemistry), suspension of fine solid particles or liquid Drop (liquid), droplets in air or another gas. Aerosols can be generated from natural or Human impact on the environment, human causes. The term ''aerosol'' co ...
s, environmental visibility and their climatological impacts. It would contain a network of 16
aethalometers, 12 sky radiometers and 12
nephelometers.
Further reading
*
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
1875 establishments in India
Government agencies established in 1875
Ministry of Earth Sciences
Governmental meteorological agencies in Asia