MoES Foundation Day: NCMRWF launches WINGS mobile app, open data portal, and weather radar mosaic
National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF) launched the WINGS mobile app, a redesigned open data portal, and a near-real-time radar reflectivity mosaic under Mission Mausam.
- NWP runs physics-based models to predict weather variables over time.
- Mesoscale analysis focuses on smaller-region weather patterns and updates them in near real time.
- A radar reflectivity mosaic stitches data from multiple Doppler radars to map storm intensity and structure.
- Hindcasts run models for past periods to check how well forecasting systems worked.
What happened: NCMRWF launches WINGS, radar mosaic, and a redesigned open data portal
National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF), under the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), launched three interconnected tools for weather services: the WINGS mobile application, a National Doppler Weather Radar Reflectivity Mosaic for near-real-time visualization, and a redesigned NCMRWF Open Data Portal. These tools are meant to make numerical weather prediction outputs, mesoscale analysis, radar-based monitoring, and key datasets easier to access and use.
Background and earlier position: NCMRWF’s forecasting and data ecosystems
UPSC can frame NCMRWF’s upgrades as a shift from only producing forecasts to also packaging outputs for decision-makers and researchers through mobile delivery, near-real-time radar visualization, and open data access. The focus can be on how model outputs (numerical prediction and AI/ML predictions) and observations (Doppler radar reflectivity) are integrated and served to users as actionable information.
