The Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) plans to extend the research period at Himadri, India’s climate research center in the Arctic region. Currently, research activities are carried out during the summer. However, in the coming days, MoES in-charge Kiran Rijiju said India plans to deploy researchers at the station throughout the year.
The minister visited the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) in the city on Saturday for the first time since MoES became Union Minister. Rijiju interacted with media persons during the visit. MOES Secretary M Ravichandran and IITM Director R Krishnan participated in the function.
Rijiju said, “Recently I spent two days in the Arctic. Our scientists are doing amazing work out there, yet there is much more to do. The team felt that India should extend the duration of its research activities at this meteorological station in the Arctic region. Therefore, the Ministry plans to deploy our scientists at Himadri station throughout the year. We are working on a schedule, and perhaps by the coming summer, we will be able to conduct research at the arctic station year-round.
At present, research work at the Arctic Climate Research Center takes place only in summer.
“We want to get information about what’s happening at other times as well. Includes glacier observation, aurora, space weather data, and astronomy. And for our device, it’s kind of a failure that we leave it there during downtime. But now we need a continuous measure. It will help me understand what is going on there. So, we plan to go to this research center in winter too, maintain our equipment and continue monitoring,” said M Ravichandran.
The focus will be on the Himalayan climate
The Himalayan mountain range and the climate of the region are crucial as they directly influence the entire country. The current flood situation and many other extreme events are good examples of that. So it is necessary to study Himalayan climate well. The ministry is planning a special study for this and will give more attention to research on Himalayan climate.
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