BHUBANESWAR: The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) came to the rescue of the State administration that was in a dilemma over landfall of Cyclone Amphan after one of the global models predicted it to hit Odisha coast, nearly 13 km away off Digha.
As Special Relief Commissioner PK Jena alerted the Collectors of three districts in the wee hours of Wednesday over the sudden possible development, a panic-stricken Balasore administration approached Integrated Test Range (ITR), a premier DRDO laboratory at Chandipur to cross-check whether there is any deviation of the track predicted by IMD.
The Doppler Weather Radar (DWR) which has been tracking trajectory of the cyclone for the last 24 hours reconfirmed the IMD prediction providing a sigh of relief for all.“The ITR has its own fully equipped weather station.
We had been constantly tracking the cyclone and sharing the data with IMD. As we received queries if the system could change its track, we started collecting fresh data on its coordinates. But there was nothing like that. The system was behaving exactly as per prediction,” ITR Director BK Das told ‘The Express’.
ITR meteorological department started tracking the cyclone using its radar from 8.30 am on Tuesday, a distance of more than 500 km.
All data related to the trajectory of cyclone, wind speed and other forecast parameters obtained from the radar was shared with IMD and Balasore administration on hourly basis till landfall.At about 4 am, ITR doppler radar tracked the eye of the cyclone at a range of about 250 km along with prediction of wind parameters.
Led by Das, the analysis team was constantly updating district administration about the progress of cyclone in real time. The cyclone went past APJ Abdul Kalam island at a distance of about 100 km from the coast inside sea at about 11.30 am. The maximum wind speed observed there was about 115 kmph as predicted by the radar.
Amphan continued its movement north-north easterly, heading to go past Balasore at about 12.30 am with reported wind speed of about 100 kmph as per DWR data confirmed by measurements from digital anemometers. The landfall of the cyclone started at about 2 pm near Sundarbans, an event again tracked and confirmed by ITR weather radar. The wind speed at landfall was measured as 150 kmph with gusting upto 185 kmph.“As per the predicted trajectory and possible wind speed due to the cyclone, all important defence installations and instruments were safe guarded well in advance against any sort of damages,” added Das.