Jaisalmer: To make weather forecasting more accurate across the country, 81 new Doppler radars are to be installed in the country by next year, including four in Rajasthan. At present, Rajasthan has only one Doppler radar, which is in Jaipur. The four new radars will be installed in Jaisalmer, Bikaner, Udaipur and Sriganganagar.This was shared by deputy director general of the meteorological department, Gajendra Kumar, in an exclusive conversation with TOI during his two-day visit to Jaisalmer. He said the expansion was aimed to ensure that no area is left out of accurate weather forecasting.Kumar said the Doppler radars, with a range of about 250 km, will determine the exact position, direction, speed and intensity of moving objects in the sky using radio electromagnetic transparency waves in their system. He said the system uses the “Doppler effect” (change in frequency) to provide real-time data on speed and intensity of rain, clouds, cyclones and storms. He said so far there was limited information for forecasting thunderstorms, but with Doppler radars, accurate and quick information can be obtained on where thunderstorms are formed, the storms emanating from them, and rainfall and lightning strikes caused by them. He said thunderclouds can be tracked to understand where they are moving and raining, or will possibly rain.
