Expansion of Cyclones Centres Under the Earth System Science Organisation (ESSO), an integrated cyclone and associated storm surge warning system is made functional all along the coastal and island regions. Giving this information in reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today, the Minister of State for Science7 Technology & Earth Sciences Shri Y.S. Chowdary said that such an effort has resulted into the considerable demonstrated improvement of cyclone forecast in respect of the Phailin cyclone during 08-14 October 2013 and the Hudhud cyclone during 06-14 October 2014. For effective operational cyclone activities, an appropriate institutional mechanism comprising cyclone warning division at ESSO-India Meteorological Department (IMD), New Delhi and three Area Cyclone Warning Centres (ACWCs) at Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai and Cyclone Warning Centres (CWCs) at Bhubaneswar, Vishakhapatnam and Ahmadabad are functional on 24X7 basis. By leveraging all available modelling and observing systems along with persistent efforts, ESSO-IMD is able to increase the lead time forecast of cyclones up to 5-7 days and to reduce the track and landfall errors of cyclones by about 7% over the last 3-4 years. ESSO continuously guides the expansion; planning and augmentation of land, ocean and satellite based observing systems and implementation of advanced data assimilation forecast systems along with augmentation of high end computing, network, data reception and warning dissemination infrastructure.
