St. Basil Hills Atmospheric Observatory to Come Up at Catholicate College
Catholicate College, Pathanamthitta, will host the St. Basil Hills Atmospheric Research Observatory, set up with NCESS support under Mission Mausam.
An advanced atmospheric observation and research facility is set to be established at Catholicate College in Pathanamthitta, in collaboration with the National Centre for Earth Science Studies (NCESS), Thiruvananthapuram.
The observatory, named the St. Basil Hills Atmospheric Research Observatory, is being set up under the Union government's Mission Mausam programme. Observation systems will be installed on the college campus, with NCESS — functioning under the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences — extending financial support of approximately ₹1.60 crore for the initiative.
The facility is expected to bolster atmospheric observation and research on weather and climate, and to aid scientific assessment of how climate change is affecting the local area. It will allow continuous tracking of parameters such as temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, rainfall, wind speed and wind direction.
Among the instruments planned are an automatic weather station, a micro rain radar, a disdrometer, a ceilometer, a microwave radiometer, a flux tower and radiation sensors. The college management has made space available on campus for the observatory.
Research at the facility will centre on atmospheric processes, climate variability and extreme rainfall events. Resmi E.A., who heads the Atmospheric Science Group at NCESS, and George Thomas, Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics at Catholicate College, will lead the research activities.
A proposed memorandum of understanding between the college and NCESS envisages faculty members and researchers from both institutions jointly carrying out data collection and research. The observatory is also expected to support academic programmes, research, student training and the development of weather and climate services relevant to the local community.
The initiative comes alongside arrangements being made on the college campus by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, for scientific studies of lightning activity, in the context of the increasing incidence of lightning in Pathanamthitta district.