Mission Mausam: Making Bharat Weather-Ready and Climate-Smart

India’s tropical weather is notoriously complex, with sudden cloudbursts, lightning storms, and localized droughts often catching communities off guard. As climate change intensifies, the challenge of predicting these events has grown sharper. To address this, the Ministry of Earth Sciences has launched Mission Mausam, a ₹2,000 crore national initiative approved by the Union Cabinet to transform India’s weather and climate forecasting capabilities between 2024–2026.

Why Mission Mausam Matters

• Forecast accuracy has improved 40–50% in the past decade.
• Current models operate at 12 km resolution, limiting small-scale forecasts.
• Mission Mausam will reduce resolution to 6 km for Panchayat-level predictions.
• Goal: Make Bharat a Weather-ready and Climate-smart nation.

Key Objectives

• Deploy next-generation radars and satellites.
• Establish high-performance computing (HPC) systems.
• Use AI/ML tools to enhance prediction accuracy.
• Develop earth system models for atmosphere, ocean, and polar regions.
• Create last-mile dissemination systems via apps, websites, and social media.
• Foster academia-industry partnerships and incubation centres.

Strategy in Action

Initiative	Details
Weather Infrastructure	50 Doppler Radars, 60 RS/RW, 100 disdrometers, 25 radiometers
Testbeds	Urban and process testbeds for cloud and land studies
Forecasting	AI-driven nowcast systems with hourly updates
Weather Modification	Cloud seeding experiments using drones and aircraft
Air Quality	New monitoring instruments for smart cities
Decision Support	Automated DSS for disaster management authorities

Who Benefits

• Farmers: Precise rainfall forecasts for crop planning.
• Civil aviation and transport: Improved storm tracking.
• Smart cities and health services: Enhanced air quality predictions.
• Defence and disaster management: Real-time decision support.
• Energy, shipping, tourism, and urban planning sectors gain resilience.

Implementation Network

• IMD: Observations, services, dissemination.
• IITM: Field campaigns, modeling, testbeds.
• NCMRWF: Data assimilation and seamless prediction.
• Support: INCOIS, NIOT, NCPOR, CWC, GSI, DGRE, academia, industry.

Expected Outcomes

• No weather system goes undetected.
• Hourly nowcasts instead of every 3 hours.
• Forecast accuracy improved by 5–10%.
• Panchayat-level forecasts at 5–6 km resolution.
• Enhanced air quality forecasts for smart cities.
• Weather interventions: fog dispersal, hail suppression, rain enhancement.
• India positioned as a leader in impact-based forecasting for the Global South.

Conclusion

Mission Mausam is more than a weather project—it is a national resilience strategy. By combining advanced technology, AI-driven models, and grassroots-level dissemination, India is preparing to face the twin challenges of climate change and extreme weather. The mission promises to make Bharat not just weather-aware, but truly weather-ready and climate-smart.