Inauguration of Meteorological (Met) Centre at Leh via video conferencing

Context

The Union Minister of Earth Sciences, Science & Technology and Health& Family Welfare inaugurated Meteorological (Met) Centre at Leh(Ladakh).

Met Centre at Leh is Located at a height of 3500m, Met Center Leh will be the highest meteorological centre in India.
The Centre will be a world class facility for high altitude meteorology and will cater to the various kinds of weather and climate needs of the people and the administration of Ladakh.
It will provide forecast for important tourist places like Nubra, Changthang, Pangong Lake, Zanskar, Kargil, Drass, Dha-Baima (Aryan valley), Khalsi among others.

Ladakh region has lofty mountains with high slopes and no vegetation and lot of loose soil and debris making the region vulnerable to various kinds of natural hazards like Cloud burst (of 2010), Flash Floods, Avalanches and Glacial Lake Outbursts, etc.
To avert losses due to such weather events in future, there was a need to establish a State of the Art Meteorological (Met) Centre at Leh in 2020 to strengthen weather related Early Warning System in Ladakh.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) is an agency of the Ministry of Earth Sciences of the Government of India.
It is the principal agency responsible for meteorological observations, weather forecasting and seismology.
IMD is headquartered in Delhi and operates hundreds of observation stations across India and Antarctica.
India Meteorology Department was established in 1875.
IMD became a member of the World Meteorological Organisation after independence on 27 April 1949.
IMD undertakes observations, communications, forecasting and weather services. In collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organisation.
The IMD also uses the IRS series and the Indian National Satellite System (INSAT) for weather monitoring of the Indian subcontinent.
IMD was first weather bureau of a developing country to develop and maintain its own satellite system.
IMD is one of the six worldwide Regional Specialised Meteorological Centres of the Tropical Cyclone Programme of the World Weather Watch of the World Meteorological Organization.
It is regional nodal agency for forecasting, naming and disseminating warnings about tropical cyclone in the Indian Ocean north of the Equator.
The IMD launched System of Aerosol Monitoring and Research (SAMAR) in January 2016 to study the concentration of Black carbon, radiative properties of aerosols, environmental visibility and their climatological impacts.
It would contain a network of 16 aethalometers, 12 sky radiometers and 12 nephelometers.