IMD to install modern radar to measure rainfall in city

Speaking to DT NEXT, S. Bagulayan Thampi, Deputy director general of meteorology, Regional Meteorological Centre, Chennai, said the existing radar in Chennai was installed 10 years ago. The department planned to replace it with one capable of providing highly accurate weather data. 

“Radar senses weather by transmitting electromagnetic signals, which interact with weather systems and generate echoes that contain weather information. The new polarimetric radar proposed can detect whether the target is an insect, a droplet, ice or hail due to its polarimetric ability,” he said. 

Presently, the department measures rain using rain gauges in various locations. Rain between two rain gauges (locations) would may vary or may not. 

“Radar is the solution to measure rain as it can measure rain at points across the radar with which we map rain continuously as it scans atmosphere continuously,” he said. 

The Doppler weather radar in Chennai scans the atmosphere continuously within a radius of over 200 kilometres.