New Delhi, Nov 25 (IANS): The government on Wednesday approved continuation of an umbrella scheme, at an estimated cost of Rs 2,135 crore, for R&D into weather and climate services, improved forecast, and better early warnings among several other things, in the next finance cycle (2021-2026).

The scheme will provide improved weather, climate, ocean forecast and services, and other hazard related services thereby ensuring transfer of commensurate benefits to the end-users as per the one of the mandates of the Ministry of Earth Sciences.

The increased incidence of extreme weather events due to global climate change and the risk associated with severe weather has prompted the Ministry to formulate many target-oriented programmes, which are carried out in an integrated manner through its agencies. As a result, these activities are put together under the umbrella scheme termed as Atmosphere & Climate Research-Modelling Observing Systems & Services (ACROSS), with its eight sub-schemes.

The scheme is being implemented by the Ministry, through its scientific agencies - the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF), the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), and the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS).

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi cleared the proposal for ACROSS.

"The eight sub-schemes under the ACROSS scheme are multi-disciplinary in nature and will be implemented in an integrated manner through IMD, IITM, NCMRWF and INCOIS to cover all the aspects of the weather and climate. Each institute has a designated role for accomplishing the above tasks through the following eight schemes," a Cabinet communique said, detailing the implementation strategy and target for ACROSS.

The scheme pertains to the atmospheric science programmes of the Ministry and addresses different aspects of weather and climate services. Each of these aspects is incorporated as eight sub-schemes under the umbrella scheme and implemented in an integrated manner through the aforesaid four institutes.

The eight sub-schemes include Commissioning of Polarimetric Doppler Weather Radars (DWRs) (IMD), Upgradation of Forecast System (IMD), Weather & Climate Services (IMD), Atmospheric Observations Network (IMD), Numerical Modelling of Weather and Climate (NCMRWF), Monsoon Mission III (IITM/NCMRWF/INCOIS/IMD), Monsoon Convection, Clouds and Climate Change (MC4) (IITM/NCMRWF/IMD), and High-Performance Computing System (HPCS) (IITM/NCMRWF), the release added.