Centre launches programme to monitor, combat fog woes

New Delhi [India], Dec. 7 (ANI): With the national capital and neighbouring states beginning to feel the bite of the thick, blanket of fog, the Ministry of Science and Technology on Wednesday launched a programme to better understand the element of fog, in order to deal with it in an effective manner. "Fog affects rail, road and air traffic and leads to many problems. In order to avoid this, proper monitoring and prediction of fog with its lead figure is essential," Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) scientist M. Mohapatra told ANI here. "IMD predicts for conditions for Delhi Airport. In order to better it, a new programme has been launched today by Minister of Science. Under this, a number of observations for fog prediction, monitoring and its understanding, will be taken into consideration," he added. The scientist further informed that thirty instruments will be put into observation, which will help in studying the fog layer. The new programme will facilitate the functioning of the IMD and will help them in improving their services. "Such intense observation will help us in two ways- one, we can make short-time forecast and two, the forecast of numerical weather prediction models can be improved by inserting observations into it," he said. With analysis and diagnosis of these observations, the IMD will be able to predict the onset time, duration, intensity of fog and disposal time of fog prediction more accurately. The scientist also expressed IMD's view of extending their services to other authorities. "We will also be initiating our efforts to provide fog prediction road and rail authorities as well." With Delhi today, waking up to an atmosphere of dense fog enveloping the region, the normal life was disrupted. 81 trains are running late while 21 have been rescheduled. Air transport also suffers as eight international flights have been delayed, three have been diverted whereas, five domestic flights have also been delayed. (ANI)