PARLIAMENT QUESTION: OCEAN OBSERVATION NETWORK AND FORECASTING

The Ministry of Earth Sciences reports that India’s Ocean Observation Network includes 19 subsurface moorings, 17 directional wave‑rider buoys, 20 ADCPs, 32 AWS, 2 water‑quality buoys, 50 tide gauges, 302 Argo floats, 12 deep‑sea gliders, 45 drifting buoys and 64 wave drifters. Data from these platforms are transmitted via the Global Telecommunication System to INCOIS, quality‑checked and assimilated into numerical weather‑prediction and ocean‑forecasting models, improving monsoon, cyclone and ocean‑state forecasts. Recent expansions added 14 tide gauges, 15 GNSS receivers and a wave‑rider buoy off Mauritius. Assimilation has raised wave‑forecast accuracy by about 43 % since 2014 and coastal‑forecast accuracy to roughly 70 %, while enabling tsunami advisories within 10 minutes of a tsunamigenic earthquake.