The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has recently uploaded over 1.5 lakh invaluable weather charts on the web. The aim is to preserve the charts which can prove to be handy in analysing the weather situation in future.
Director of the National Data Centre at IMD, G Krishnakumar told DNA that the main object of the project titled 'Digitalisation of Indian Ocean Southern Hemisphere Analysis Charts (INOSHAC)' is to preserve the charts from 1932 till date for weather analysis in future. They will be available to various government agencies like water resources department, town planning department and individual researchers and institutes.
Others like the civil aviation and shipping companies also often require weather charts.
"We had initially undertaken a pilot project where we uploaded 15,000 weather charts," he said, explaining that the digitalisation of weather charts in the form of reports and symbols can now be easily accessed with just the click of a mouse.
"In the next phase of the project, around one lakh charts - ranging between 1932 and 1962- were digitalised and uploaded," he said. The third phase involved uploading 50,000 weather charts from 1990 to December 2008.
"With the help of these charts, individual researchers and research institutes can analyse the weather pattern in the particular period," Krishnakumar said, adding that around Rs17 lakh have been spent on the project so far. He said city-based software company Virtual Infosoft was assigned the task to upload the charts.
President of Virtual Infosoft Manish Patel said, "Before uploading the charts, we had to take their digital photos to maintain the clarity of the same."
No comments:
Post a Comment