Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) Launches System of Aerosol Monitoring and Research (SAMAR)

The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) on Friday launched a System of Aerosol Monitoring and Research (SAMAR) which will help the country in studying concentration of black carbon in atmosphere due to air pollution and its impact on climate. Aerosols are a subset of air pollution that contains gases, fumes and dust in harmful proportion. Aerosols particles can be both solid and liquid which also affects environmental visibility.

The SAMAR, equipped with many sophisticated equipments including 12 sky radiometers, will study aerosols' different properties and determine how it impact the climate over a longer period of time. At present, country has to depend on other countries' research for this purpose. The system was launched by the Union science and technology minister Harsh Vardhan on the IMD's 141st foundation day on Friday. He also launched a new user-friendly website of the country's central weather forecaster on the occasion.

Addressing the gathering, the minister congratulated the meteorological department officials for the timely dissemination of critical weather-related information to 1.15 crore farmers through SMS and agriculture-portal in 2015, saying the efforts had gone a long way in reducing the devastating impact of the erratic rainfall on the Kharif crops. The IMD chief L S Rathore noted on the central weather department's predictions on the below-average south-west monsoons helped the farmers adopt short term crops and reduce the negative outcomes last year. The IMD, at present, provides city weather forecast for 324 stations and tourism forecast for 106 stations across the country.