On 6 October an implementation agreement under the existing NOAA and Indian Ministry of Earth Sciences Memorandum of Understanding was signed at the NOAA Silver Spring Campus aimed at improving tropical cyclone forecasts over the Indian Ocean Region. The agreement outlines a strategy by which HRD and the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, and Purdue University will collaborate on improving the Indian regional tropical cyclone modeling system (based on HWRF) and the use of new and existing observations to improve the forecast guidance for tropical cyclones effecting India and the surrounding countries. HRD’s efforts will be coordinated through the NOAA Hurricane Forecast Improvement Project in close collaboration with NCEP’s Environmental Modeling Center (EMC) and university partners. Like NOAA’s National Hurricane Center (NHC), IMD is one of the six World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre (RSMC) responsible for providing tropical cyclone analyses and forecasts for the countries surrounding the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. Hence, any improvements through this collaboration will provide benefits not only to the Indian people, but also to the people living in those regions. The presentation by Frank Marks (HRD), Vijay Tallapragada (EMC), and Prof. U. C. Mohanty (IIT, Delhi) outlining the collaboration and giving some examples of what the different organizations bring to it is available at:
ftp://ftp.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/pub/blog/seminars/2010/Marks_MoES_20101006_v4.ppt
