Pune's IITM to embark on Monsoon Mission

If all goes well, Pune-based Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorological (IITM) will embark on an ambitious, five-year, Monsoon Mission programme.

Revealing this during the course of his presentation at the Indian Meteorological Society, Pune chapter’s (IMSP) annual monsoon workshop held in the city on Thursday, director, IITM, BN Goswami said, “There is a need for more accurate short, medium and long range monsoon forecasts and the monsoon mission is a step in that direction.’’

According to Goswami, academic circles in the country had carried out considerable research in the field of monsoon predictability, but had not joined forces with weather forecasters.

“There is an urgent need to bridge this gap. The Monsoon Mission will see a team from IITM interact with teams from the academia to bring out a modified, high quality weather forecasting model,’’ Goswami said.

According to Goswami, the proposal for the Monsoon Mission project had been sent to the Union ministry of earth sciences (MOES) and the project could begin in mid-2011 following an approval from the MOES.