VidBodh has grown into First Principles IAS. Same teachers, same free answer writing.

First Principles IASFirst Principles IAS

First Principles IAS · Current affairs

Everything filed · Environment and Disaster Management › Disaster Management › Early warning and communication

Printed on · firstprinciplesias.com/current-affairs

Environment and Disaster Management › Disaster Management

हिन्दी — Read in Hindi

Early warning and communication

Forecasts, warning systems and the satellites and alerts that carry a warning to the people at risk.

Asked before

  1. Prelims 2026: With reference to the climate of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which of the following statements is/are correct? 1. The climate can be def…
  2. Prelims 2026: Which of the following statements with regard to Large Language Models (LLMs) used in machine learning is/are correct? 1. LLMs assign pro…
  3. Prelims 2026: Which of the following statements with regard to Black Boxes used in modern aircrafts is/are correct? 1. They carry a beacon emitting red…
  4. Prelims 2026: Which of the following statements with regard to drone swarms is/are correct? 1. They use Terahertz band of frequency to communicate with…
  5. Prelims 2026: Which of the following statements with regard to the National Quantum Mission (NQM) is/are correct? 1. It aims at developing intermediate…
  6. Prelims 2026: Which of the following statements about DHRUV64 is/are correct? 1. It is the third chip fabricated under the DIR-V Programme with an over…
  7. Prelims 2026: Which of the following statements with regard to India's indigenous new high resolution weather model, the 'Bharat Forecast System,' is/a…
  8. Prelims 2026: Which of the following statements regarding the features of blockchain technology are correct? 1. Records stored in the database may be m…

See all: Prelims 1 · Prelims 2 · Mains

Mission Mausam: the 6 km forecast goes operational

Copy link to Mission Mausam: the 6 km forecast goes operational

UpdatePrelims and Mains22 Jul 2026

Latest position, 22 July 2026

  • In written replies in the Lok Sabha on 22 and 23 July the Earth Sciences Ministry said the Bharat Forecast System now runs operationally at a horizontal resolution of 6 km on the Triangular Cubic Octahedral grid, against about 12 km for the older global model and 9 to 14 km for global operational models elsewhere; India is the only country running a global model at this resolution in real time.
  • It forecasts for a cluster of panchayats rather than a district, on the Arka and Arunika supercomputers, whose capacity rose from 6.8 petaflops in 2014 to 28 petaflops in 2025; three AI based global models also run operationally.
  • Warnings travel as Common Alerting Protocol alerts by text message and through the SACHET app built by the National Disaster Management Authority, which Apple, Google and the Global Multi hazard Alert System also read; Mausamgram gives forecasts to village level.
  • The observing network: 50 Doppler weather radars now feed the India Meteorological Department, with more planned; the Ministry reports a 40 per cent improvement in severe weather forecast accuracy over the previous decade.

Background

  • Mission Mausam (June): launched on 14 January 2025 to make India weather ready and climate smart; the seventh Regional Meteorological Centre at Jammu and the eighth at Lucknow, opened in June; radars up from 17 in 2014 to 50.

Read the earlier article: Mission Mausam: new regional centres and the radar gap

Sources
  • PIB, 22 July 2026
  • PIB, 5 June 2026
  • PIB, 8 June 2026

Cell Broadcast Alert System and the Common Alerting Protocol

Copy link to Cell Broadcast Alert System and the Common Alerting Protocol

StandardPrelims and Mains30 Jun 2026

What it is

  • The Cell Broadcast System is an indigenous public warning system that sends a geo targeted alert at the same moment to every mobile phone in a defined area, from a single cell tower to a whole region.
  • It was built by the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) of the Department of Telecommunications, with the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and the Home Ministry, and launched on 2 May 2026 after pan India tests from late April.
  • It is integrated with SACHET, the NDMA's Integrated Alert System, which is built on the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP).

How it differs from text message alerts

SMS alertsCell broadcast
How sentMessage by message to numbers in a geo targeted areaOne broadcast to all phones in the area at once
Speed under loadQueues when networks are congestedArrives within seconds, without queuing
Who receivesSubscribers whose numbers are reachedEvery phone in the area, roaming users included
On the phoneA text messageA pop up with a loud tone, read aloud on supported handsets; cannot be switched off
  • It works on 2G to 5G networks and in several Indian languages, and is meant for time critical events: tsunamis, earthquakes, lightning strikes, gas leaks and chemical hazards.
  • SACHET runs in all 36 States and Union Territories and has sent over 134 billion SMS alerts in more than 19 Indian languages.

What happened

  • Pan India trials under SACHET were completed and training held across all States and Union Territories.
  • The system has already reached people in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Uttarakhand during disasters and is used for the Char Dham Yatra.
  • C-DOT has demonstrated it in Mauritius, Cambodia, El Salvador and Sri Lanka, in line with the UN's Early Warnings for All initiative.

Why it matters

  • The last mile is where warnings fail: a forecast that does not reach a fisherman, a pilgrim or a village in time saves no one.
  • Cell broadcast closes the gap that SMS leaves in a crisis, when networks jam and seconds count, as in a tsunami or a gas leak.
  • An alert that cannot be switched off is effective only if it is trusted, so false or vague alerts carry a cost.

Exam lens

  • Prelims: C-DOT developed it; SACHET is NDMA's CAP based Integrated Alert System; CAP is recommended by the ITU; cell broadcast reaches all phones in an area at once, roaming users included; Early Warnings for All is a UN initiative.
  • Mains: early warning is only as good as its last mile; examine with reference to India's alert systems.

Asked before: Mains 2022 GS1 · Mains 2020 GS3

Show the questions
  1. Mains 2022 GS1: Discuss the meaning of colour-coded weather warnings for cyclone prone areas given by India Meteorological Department.
  2. Mains 2020 GS3: Discuss the recent measures initiated in disaster management by the Government of India departing from the earlier reactive approach.

Connects to

Sources
  • PIB, 2 May 2026
  • PIB, 29 April 2026

Mission Mausam: new regional centres and the radar gap

Copy link to Mission Mausam: new regional centres and the radar gap

StandardPrelims and Mains5 Jun 2026

What it is

  • Mission Mausam is the Ministry of Earth Sciences programme to widen India's observing network, sharpen its weather models and take up research on weather modification; it was approved in 2024 and launched on 14 January 2025.
  • A second phase runs from 2026 to 2031 through six verticals, of which weather modification is one.
  • Its targets are set for 2030: forecasts 10 to 15 per cent more accurate, and hazard forecasts on a 5 km grid reaching every household. The Bharat Forecast System is the model at its centre.

What happened

  • On 5 June 2026 the India Meteorological Department (IMD) opened its seventh Regional Meteorological Centre at Jammu, for Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh, which the Delhi centre had covered until then.
  • On 8 June a new centre opened at Lucknow for Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
  • Doppler weather radars across India have risen from 17 in 2014 to 50, and another 50 are proposed under the mission, taking the total to nearly 100 within two years.
  • Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh had no radar in 2014 and now have four, at Jammu, Srinagar, Leh and Banihal Top, with five more proposed.

The radar and the hills

  • Scanning every few minutes, a radar follows a storm as it builds, which is what turns a forecast into a warning.
  • In the hills a ridge blocks the beam and the valley behind goes unwatched, while a radar placed high enough to see over ridges passes above the low cloud that drops the rain.
  • A cloudburst builds and empties within the hour, so a gap in cover is a warning that never comes; hence the new radars in the Himalayan States.
Uttar Pradesh2014June 2026
Doppler weather radars13
Automatic weather stations59107
Lightning sensors07

Why it matters

  • A regional centre brings forecasting closer to the State disaster authorities that must act on it.
  • The network is the precondition for a warning reaching a household: the radar sees the storm, the model forecasts it, and the alert system carries it to the phone.

Exam lens

  • Prelims: Mission Mausam is under the Ministry of Earth Sciences; the Bharat Forecast System; Jammu is the seventh Regional Meteorological Centre; a Doppler radar measures the speed of raindrops from the shift in echo frequency.
  • Mains: why the Himalayan States remain the hardest to warn, and what the observing network must add.

Asked before: Mains 2022 GS1 · Mains 2020 GS3

Show the questions
  1. Mains 2022 GS1: Discuss the meaning of colour-coded weather warnings for cyclone prone areas given by India Meteorological Department.
  2. Mains 2020 GS3: Discuss the recent measures initiated in disaster management by the Government of India departing from the earlier reactive approach.

Connects to

Sources
  • Ministry of Earth Sciences
  • PIB, 22 July 2026
  • PIB, 5 June 2026
  • PIB, 8 June 2026

Updated, 22 Jul 2026: Mission Mausam: the 6 km forecast goes operational

Also filed elsewhere

  • EOS-05: India's first Earth observation satellite in geosynchronous orbit · on Launch vehicles, satellites and applications

    EOS-05, also called GISAT-1A, is the first Indian Earth observation satellite to image from geosynchronous orbit, about 35,786 km up, where a satellite's period matches one rotation of the Earth.

  • Forest fires: the 2026 season and the alerts that do not add up · on Forests, grasslands and mountain ecosystems

    Forest fires in India are tracked through alerts that the Forest Survey of India reads off satellite passes, and sent to the State forest departments and registered users by text message.

  • Ocean observation and tsunami warning: an advisory in ten minutes · on Ocean, polar and earth science missions

    Exam lens: INCOIS at Hyderabad; Argo floats measure temperature and salinity to 2,000 metres; the tsunami centre set up after 2004 issues an advisory within 10 minutes; bottom pressure recorders detect the wave in the open ocean.

  • Swell surge: Kerala's kallakadal · on Extreme weather, monsoon and forecasting

    A swell surge is coastal flooding caused by ocean swell generated far away, by a distant storm or a long gale, usually in the southern Indian Ocean.