BERHAMPUR: The operation of doppler weather radar (DWR) at Gopalpur, installed in 2016, may get delayed as it developed technical glitches recently.
Sharing details about the radar, India Meteorological Department (IMD)-Odisha head, Sarat Kumar Sahu, said the DWR was successfully put under trial run last week. “The officials hoped to make the DWR operational from September. But, it stopped working all of a sudden. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) authorities have been apprised of the technical snag. A team from ISRO will soon visit Gopalpur,” he said.
The local Met office in Ganjam, a coastal district that is vulnerable to natural calamities, is dependent on DWR at Visakhapatnam for forecasting cyclones.The decision to install a DWR at Gopalpur was taken following the recommendation of a high-level team of the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT). The NIOT had conducted a survey after super-cyclone hit Ganjam in 1999.
The DWR was provided to the State by the Centre at a cost of around `22 crore. The radar, weighing 16 tonnes, had been designed by ISRO and assembled by Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL). The State Government had provided 3 acres and released funds worth `25 lakh from Odisha State Disaster Mitigation Agency (OSDMA) for the construction of its building.
After the disastrous impacts of cyclones Phailin and Hudhud in the district, the construction for the radar started in 2013. “The DWR will help the Met department predict cyclones, tornadoes, hailstorms, lightning, and cloudbursts more accurately, as its antenna will oscillate 24 hours at various elevations at frequent intervals within 16-metre diameter,” claimed Sahu.The radar is also equipped to detect coastal weather conditions within a distance of 450 km to 500 km from the seashore. It can identify clouds up to a range of 500 km, added Sahu.