The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Peep into a world where our planet is always under scanner

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Wednesday, Mar 26, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Peep into a world where our planet is always under scanner

Staff Reporter

Exhibition and open house meetings held as part of World Meteorological Day

— Photo: S.Thanthoni

FIRST-HAND: Visitors being briefed on the weather station at the College Road Meteorological Centre on Tuesday.

CHENNAI: For those who have only read or watched the weather bulletins in the media, a visit to the Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) on College Road was an enlightening and exciting experience on Tuesday.

Several people along with their children spent a few hours learning about the various observational techniques used in the RMC to track the weather conditions. The Meteorological exhibition and open house meetings were held as part of the World Meteorological Day celebrations.

Observed on March 23 of every year, the theme of this year’s celebration was ‘Observing our planet for a better future.’ The exhibition had prototypes of the various equipment used for monitoring the weather conditions and also charts about the meteorological services and effects of global warming. Some of the meteorological parlance, including swell waves and storm surge, were described in detail at the exhibition.

Tour around units

The visitors were also taken on a tour around the units of the RMC, including the Nungambakkam observatory and the automatic weather station.

A Meteorological department official said the automatic weather station recorded weather parameters such as humidity, temperature and wind directions and transferred the data to the office in New Delhi. It also had a storehouse in which data was available.

The Nungambakkam observatory had both manual and automatic units such as the thermometers used for recording maximum and minimum temperatures for a short period and rain gauge that automatically recorded the rain intensity in 24 hours, he said.

The other units, including area cyclone warning centre and seismograph monitoring, were also kept open for the public. Scientific talks on monsoons 2007 and safeguarding the earth also formed part of the celebrations.

Deputy Director General of Meteorology, RMC, Chennai R.V.Sharma and executive director of Tamil Nadu Science and Technology Centre P.Iyamperumal participated in the programme.

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