Study underway to predict fog at KIA, 6 hrs in advance

#News(General) [ via IoTForIndiaGroup ]

[ May help in Air Quality PMI projects also ]
Can fog be predicted five to six hours in advance to help airlines and passengers plan their schedules better? Making this a clear possibility in the future, the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) here has launched a 40-month fog study.

After enduring over 600 fog-linked flight disruptions at the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) here this season, the Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) on Monday inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with JNCASR to activate the collaborative study.

The study will track the atmospheric conditions in the vicinity of the airport. A Numerical Simulation Tool capable of predicting onset, intensity and dissipation of fog will be developed, according to Prof Sreenivas, leading a JNCASR Team.

Over the next 40 months, the Team will conduct extensive research on the microphysics of radiation fog. The night time temperature variation and how it affects aerosols, wind and humidity will be studied. This is expected to vastly improve weather forecasting at the airport.

During the next three fog seasons and the preceding months, these factors influencing the weather condition will be monitored: Atmospheric variability, ground temperature, atmospheric aerosol loading, radiative fluxes, water vapour and energy transport in the surface layer.

Predicting fog at KIA much in advance will help airlines delay boarding from the origin airports. In the absence of this information, flights are now either diverted or go around till the fog clears.

“If the data is available at 10 pm or 11 pm the previous night for an earl

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