Today's Headlines

National framework for climate services

GS Paper - 3 (Environment)

India is embarking on a major programme to launch its maiden national-level framework towards providing climate services and information. Spearheaded by the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the National Framework for Climate Services (NFCS) envisions to bring a seamless working platform for users of climate information and services, and help decide and mitigate climate risks for key sectors — agriculture, energy, disaster management, health and water.

What is the NFCS based on?

1. The Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS) is a partnership of governments and organisations at a global level, for the production and better usage of climate information and services.
2. The GFCS aims to facilitate researchers and users of climate information and services to join hands in order to make informed and actionable decisions for the long-term betterment.
3. The announcement to establish a GFCS was made during the third World Climate Conference held in Geneva in 2009.
4. This framework, led by National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHS) in their respective nations, includes active participation of policymakers, planners, investors and vulnerable communities or sectors, as they need climate information and services in a user-friendly format, so that they can prepare for expected trends and changes in the long run.
5. GFCS envisages generating high-quality data from national and international databases on temperature, rainfall, wind, soil moisture and ocean conditions and other vital weather parameters.
6. This is aimed at creating long-term historical averages of these parameters, as well as maps, risk and vulnerability analyses, assessments and long-term projections and scenarios.
7. The five major components under GFCS are Observations and Monitoring, Research, Modelling and Prediction, Climate Services Information System, User Interface Platform and Capacity Building.
8. At present, the priority sectors where the GFCS focuses upon are agriculture and food security, energy, health, water and disaster risk reduction.

What the NFCS will do

1. In lines with the global framework, the national framework will be based on country-specific weather and stakeholder needs.
2. Unlike the GFCS, the nodal agency for the formulation and implementation of the national framework in India will be the IMD.
3. Along with the identified sectors of focus, India could add other relevant sectors like transport, tourism and other emerging sectors from time to time.
4. Initially, the NFCS will work in bridging functioning gaps between the various agencies who require climate services.
5. These include the hydrological, power, renewable energy, transport, dams and irrigation, health agencies are central, state and other levels.

Why the NFCS is needed

1. IMD, which will enter its 150th year of existence in December 2023, has gained a remarkable hold on providing high-quality weather services for the country and its South Asian neighbours.
2. The IMD makes daily weather forecasts and season predictions for the winter, summer and the monsoon seasons.
3. The accuracy of its weather and seasonal forecasts for the monsoons, cyclones, heatwaves and coldwaves, thunderstorms and lightning, snowfall, flash flood – all of which primarily affect a vast country like India – have improved many folds.
4. Over the decades, the Met department steadily upgraded the number of ground-based weather observation stations and radars.
5. But, there remain many gap areas across terrains and the seas, wherein no weather data is available. There is a lack of long-term (100 years or more) climatological data from the Himalayan regions, the oceans, besides inexistence of radar and satellite-based climatology.
6. This is one of the major reasons why the IMD could make limited in providing climate predictions (typically long-term, example decadal predictions).
7. With NFCS, the Met department aims to strengthen the observational network on land and the seas, improve the data inflow and eventually use it to run weather and climate models for deriving climate predictions.

RBI’s Open Market Operation plan

GS Paper - 3 (Economy)

The Reserve Bank of India’s announcement to consider the Open Market Operation (OMO) sale of government securities to manage liquidity in the system took the bond market by surprise as the central bank did not reveal any specific timeline for the proposal. In response, the yield on the benchmark 10-year government bonds shot up by 12 basis points to 7.34 per cent as the market anticipated an OMO shortly, which is expected to tighten liquidity in the system.

What’s OMO?

1. The RBI uses Open market operations (OMOs) in order to adjust the rupee liquidity conditions in the market on a durable basis.
2. When the Reserve Bank feels that there is excess liquidity in the market, it resorts to the sale of government securities, thereby sucking out the rupee liquidity.
3. Similarly, when the liquidity conditions are tight, the central bank buys securities from the market, thereby releasing liquidity into the market.
4. It’s used as a tool to rein in inflation and money supply in the system. However, when liquidity is sucked out, it can lead to a spike in bond yields as the RBI will release more government securities into the market and bond buyers demand more interest rate on these securities.

Why RBI wants OMO?

1. While the specific OMO calendar has not been released, the RBI governor, in the post-policy press conference, emphasized the bank’s intent for “active liquidity management.”
2. This signals the RBI’s inclination towards tighter liquidity conditions in the future, influenced by both inflation risks and financial stability concerns.
3. This stance is in alignment with the central bank’s objective of anchoring inflation at 4 per cent. The RBI’s approach is clear: merely keeping inflation below the upper band of the target range (at 6 per cent) is insufficient, a more proactive approach is essential.
4. The central bank wants to use liquidity management to achieve the target. Historically, the October-May period is observed to have high cash withdrawals due to the festive and wedding seasons.
5. This generally tends to reduce the durable liquidity in the banking system, which now appears to be the RBI’s area of focus under liquidity management.
6. Thus, the mention of OMO sale at this stage was a bit of a surprise and it leaves the window open for speculations regarding the level of liquidity at which the RBI may plan out the OMO sale and its quantum.

Perseverance captures unique 'Blue Sunset' on Mars

GS Paper - 3 (Space Technology)

The Perseverance Rover marked its 842nd day on Mars. As the red Martian sky grew dark, the robot on Mars turned its left navigation camera towards the hazy horizon and captured a unique sunset that differs from those seen on Earth. In a single photograph, the robot captured an alien sunset, where the Martian sky radiated an unusual and cool blue hue around the sun. If observed closely, this is unlike any Earthly sunset witnessed, and there's a logical explanation for it.

More about the News

1. Mars is further from the Sun than Earth, which means the sunlight is not much powerful and less than half of what Earth gets.
2. Also, Mars only has a percent of Earth's atmosphere which primarily composes carbon dioxide with traces of nitrogen and oxygen.
3. This means there’s a distinct interaction between sunlight and the atmosphere of both planets.
4. On Earth when sunlight enters its atmosphere, it interacts with oxygen, nitrogen, and other particles in the sky causing the scattering of blue light, which gives our planet its characteristic blue sky during the day.
5. However, as the Sun rises or sets, its light passes through more atmosphere and filters out the blue and violet wavelengths by the time the light reaches our eyes and leaves behind the warm oranges and reds as the sunsets.
6. The sunlight on Mars interacts with iron-rich dust suspended in the thin atmosphere instead of interacting with oxygen or nitrogen. This interaction scatters lower-frequency red light during the day, creating a red sky.
7. During twilight, the red light disperses, revealing a cool blue hue in the Martian sky due to the dusty haze.
8. The colors on Mars come from the fact that the very fine dust is the right size so that blue light penetrates the atmosphere slightly more efficiently.
9. When the blue light scatters off the dust, it stays closer to the direction of the Sun than light of other colors does. The rest of the sky is yellow to orange, as yellow and red light scatter all over the sky instead of being absorbed or staying close to the Sun.
10. Sunlight continues to hit dust high in the Martian atmosphere, resulting in a bluish haze that stays for several hours post-sunset or sunrise.
11. Twilight on Mars offers an ideal opportunity for capturing photos of dust and clouds against the dark backdrop, aiding researchers in studying the Red Planet's atmosphere, allowing them to detect dust and ice clouds with ease.
12. The Curiosity rover this year captured a remarkable image of the Sun's rays piercing through Martian twilight clouds, revealing insights into particle size changes within the clouds.
13. For almost two decades, the Curiosity rover, the Perseverance rover, the Spirit rover, and the Opportunity rover have consistently captured Mars' sunsets and the magnificence of the photos are undiminished.