India, US to reactivate Indian Ocean network

NEW DELHI: India and the US have decided to reactivate the Indian Ocean Observing System (IndOOS), a network of 36 moored buoys in the high seas to collect high-resolution ocean and atmospheric data for weather forecasts.

The IndOOS array of buoys fell into neglect and disrepair during the years of the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to gaps in observational data considered crucial by weather forecasters, particularly since the links between the Indian Ocean Dipole phenomenon and monsoon were established.

The reactivation of IndOOS was discussed last month during a meeting of Earth Sciences Secretary M Ravichandran with Rick Spinrad, Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the US.

The moored buoys are part of the Research Moored Array for African-Asian-Australian Monsoon Analysis and Prediction (RAMA) programme that was born out of a collaboration between the Ministry of Earth Sciences and NOAA in 2008.

“We want to reactivate RAMA. I discussed it with the NOAA chief during my visit to Washington in March,” Ravichandran said.

NOAA has agreed to provide instrumentation and India will give ship-time from July for restarting the RAMA array, he said, adding that about 60-90 days of ship-time will be required for the purpose.

In an article published in the Bulletin of American Meteorological Society (BAMS), weather forecasters from several countries wrote that the pandemic disrupted the deployment and maintenance cruises for the observational array and also resulted in supply chain issues for procurement and refurbishment of equipment.