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Winter Fog Experiment (WIFEX 2016-17) : Environment for UPSC Exams
Winter Fog Experiment (WIFEX 2016-17) : Environment for UPSC Exams
- Fog is a visible mass consisting of cloud water droplets suspended in the air or near the Earth’s surface.
- The presence of heavy and extended period fog in the northern regions of India is one of the major weather hazards, impacting aviation, road transportation, economy and public life in the world’s most densely populated region.
- Maximum fog occurrence over the Northwest India is about 48 days (visibility < 1000m) per year, and occurs mostly during the December-February time period.
- Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), has taken up a multi-institutional initiative to conduct an intensive ground-based measurement campaign at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), Delhi, to understand different physical and chemical features of Fog and factors responsible for its genesis, intensity and duration.
- WIFEX was conducted in a pilot mode at IGIA during last winter, and will be continued during December 2016 till February 2017.
- The main scientific objective of this project is to study the characteristics and variability of fog events and associated dynamics, thermodynamics and fog microphysics, with the aim to achieve better understanding of fog life cycle and ultimately improve capability in fog prediction.
- Extensive sets of comprehensive ground-based instrumentation, including remote sensing platforms, are deployed at the IGIA.
- Major in-situ sensors are deployed to measure surface micro meteorological conditions, radiation balance, turbulence, thermo-dynamical structure of the surface layer, fog droplet and aerosol microphysics, aerosol optical properties, real time sky images, and aerosol and fog water chemistry to describe the complete environmental conditions in which fog develops
- It is proposed to introduce this model for operational forecasts of Fog for the winter season of 2017-18.
- In addition to Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, India Meteorology Department (IMD), National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecast (NCMRWF), Airport Authority of India, GMR, Indira Gandhi International Airport and Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Mohali are also participating in this observational campaign