Megamenu

Body

Partner Agency Areas of Cooperation
Date of Signature
Major accomplishments
National Oceanic and
Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA),
USA.
MoU for Technical
Cooperation in Earth
Observations and Earth
Sciences.
April 16, 2008.
MoU became functional on 4 th November 2010 with the exchange of Diplomatic Note.
The MoU has been further extended by 10 years till Nov 2030.

Under this MoU, various Implementation Agreement (IA) were undertaken with identified PIs from India and US with well-defined objectives, deliverables, individual as well as joint roles and monitoring/evaluating mechanism. Five such agreements/SoI’s are active in the field of Harmful Algal blooms, Operational Wave Modeling and Assimilation, Research moored Array for African-Asian-Australian Monsoon Analysis and prediction (RAMA), Monsoon Desk, Tropical Cyclone. Some of the significant outcomes are placed below:

  • RAMA Mooring: The collaboration has resulted in fundamental understanding of Indian Ocean dynamics and ocean-atmosphere interactions that affect the weather and climate through ocean observations from RAMA moorings. 129 RAMA deployments were under taken during the period 2008 to present. This is evident from the growing RAMA bibliography. Till date, the data from RAMA moorings have been used in 81 articles published in international journals. MoES is also assimilating RAMA data in the Global ocean analysis and this forms an important initial condition for seasonal monsoon prediction by coupled model which enhanced the forecast considerably. Also, many ocean general circulation models set up and run at various offices of MoES and use this data in real time for validation of forecasts. RAMA Buoy network is part of Global effort by US to bring many countries to collect data Outside national jurisdiction EEZ and share it with all users. Indian students have widely benefited. ISRO/SAC used these data sets for satellite data validation resulting in many products. NIOT under MoEs has been invited by NOAA PMEL for their views on their 10-year future plan. Considering the mutual benefits and also the importance of RAMA moorings in generating useful data, this activity is continued for additional five years.

  • For Dynamical Seasonal Prediction of Indian Summer Monsoon Rainfall, Monsoon desk has been established at NCEP, USA under which state-of-art dynamical model has been developed, tested and operationalised . Evaluation of the model performance shows 1 day gain in the performance of the flow pattern. Collaborative work for further improved performance over Indian region is on. Under this IA, systems have been set up for seasonal, extended-range and short- range dynamical predictions using coupled and atmosphere only models with specific emphasis on monsoons and its variability. India now has the capability for sub-seasonal and seasonal predictions and improved climate forecasts. The models are being put to varied use including prediction of heat waves etc. A modified version of the same modeling system is also used for climate change studies and this formed the basis for an Indian entry in the CMIP6 inter-comparison.

  • Tropical Cyclone Research: Under this IA, the high-resolution operational Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting (HWRF) Model was implemented at IMD in 2012. IMD along with INCOIS have worked with NOAA to implement a Very high resolution HWRF at 2 km resolution. The coupled version of Hurricane WRF has been implemented in 2019 for real-time forecasting of the tropical cyclones over the North Indian Ocean. This IA was extended for an additional five-year period, effective from 18 June 2018.

  • Development of predictive capabilities for Fisheries and Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs): The main objectives of the SoI are to (a) Improve the short-term prediction of sardine, mackerel and anchovies of the Eastern Arabian Sea & (b) Develop HAB monitoring and prediction System (HAMPS) for the Indian EEZ. Significant achievements include sharing of expertise and technology to strengthen the research field on fish eggs and larvae, its environmental linkage, and its importance in the development of prediction of adult fishery; Sharing of knowledge and expertise to modify survey design, training on acoustic method of biomass estimation, the CalCOFI approach in the understanding of the ecosystem and regional fishery assessment etc. A statistical model is developed for the Sardine landing along the south west coast of India applying "R" tools, making use of the statistical correlation with the identified covariates viz. SST, upwelling indices, wind and currents.

  • Ocean Wave modelling: Multi-grid WAVEWATCH III operationalized at INCOIS giving 5-days global wave forecast in advance has been upgraded to WAVEWATCH III version 4.10 which is providing 10 days global wave forecast on daily basis. The development of a wave surge forecast system for the Indian coastal region has been initiated at INCOIS. WAVEWATCH III experiments are in progress to study the interactions of multidirectional swell in NIO for improvement of wave forecast especially during North East monsoon. A network of real time wave observation system and ship mountable AWS is established along Indian coast. INCOIS is working closely with NOAA for developing a wave forecasting system using WAVEWATCH III and SWAN for the Indian Ocean.
JUnited States Geological
Survey (USGS), USA.
MoU concerning Scientific
and Technical Cooperation in
Earth Science.
MoU was signed between MoES and USGS on 1 st November 2018, to enable the sharing of expertise available with both organizations and adoption of the latest state-of-the- art technology in the field of Earth Science. The cooperation under this MoU is envisaged through various modes viz. exchange of technical information, visits, training, and cooperative research consistent with ongoing programs of both MoES and USGS. A list of probable topics/ projects for joint cooperation have been shared with USGS in June 2019, which include Tsunami modelling and coastal processes. These topics will be undertaken through various modes such as exchange of technical information, visits, training, and cooperative research consistent with ongoing programs of both MoES and USGS.
Under this MoU the Ministry is also planning for joint collaborative work on development of Earthquake Early warning System for India as a pilot project. Secretary MoES has a written to his US counterpart.
University Corporation
for Atmospheric
Research (UCAR), USA.
MoU for Cooperation in the field of Earth System Sciences.

September 24, 2014.

Tenure of the MoU expired in 2019, but activities are continued.
Joint collaboration between MoES and UCAR has resulted in the development of an early warning system for Air Quality at Delhi which was launched on 15 October 2018. The high-resolution Air Quality Early Warning System for Delhi has since been made operational. The warning system also provides an air quality forecast for a few more cities in the northern region of India at 1 km resolution. Future plans will involve efforts to assimilate data from around 36 monitoring stations run by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), and System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) and use it in Early warning system. Information from satellites on stubble burning in northwest India or dust storms along with the prevalent meteorological factors to be assimilated to improve the initial conditions of the dynamical chemistry transport model.
National Science
Foundation, USA.
MoU for Associate membership of International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) consortium.
June 2009.
By utilising the NSF drilling platform JOIDES RESOLUTION, Indian scientists got an opportunity to get hands-on experience with the marine geoscientific research platform, sediment coring and drilling. Around 30 Indian scientists from 13 various national organizations gained hands-on exposure in analyzing deep-sea sediment/hard cores in the last 5 years. Also, India has Exclusive access to core samples within the moratorium period.
During the last 3 years, India has participated for long-term scientific drilling programs in the Southern and Antarctic Oceans and addressing regional as well as global scientific challenges.