HYDERABAD: The India Meteorological Department (IMD) will be installing a Radiosounding Upper Air Observation system at the meteorological observatory in Ramagundam next week. The system is capable of measuring and reporting temperature, humidity, wind speed, wind direction at different levels of upper air atmosphere up to 25 to 30 km above ground level.
It consists of GPS-based Radiosonde instrument having sensors for measuring the above parameters, a transmitter for sending signals to ground-based receiving system and is released in to the air using a 350 gm hydrogen-filled rubber balloon.
Except for the balloon and gas, the other equipment is imported from Korea. The observations are taken twice daily, at 5.30 am and then again in the evening. The data is utilized as an additional input in regular weather forecasting which contributes to improvement in accuracy of forecasts.
The IMD installed a similar system at Kavali, Andhra Pradesh and commissioned it on Sunday. It was the 55th radiosounding station in the Upper Air Observation Network of IMD.