The Indian Space Research Organisation ( ISRO) has joined hands with the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) to promote better understanding of vegetation-environment relationship, including development of predictive ability to study the vegetation response to the climate change.
While BHU vice-chancellor D P Singh inaugurated the ISRO-funded automated agromet weather station (AMS) at the Rajiv Gandhi South Campus (RGSC), Barkachha (Mirzapur), on Friday, it also marked the start of the first activity of the newly established Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development (IESD) in the university.
As per A S Raghubanshi, coordinator, IESD, BHU, the AMS would work with the help of a 10-metre tall micrometeorological tower, installed at RGSC, that also became functional on Friday.
The data collected through the sensors placed at various sites in the biodiversity park of the RGSC would be uplinked every hour to the AMS transmitter of INSAT/KALPANA-1 satellite and again retransmitted through the extended C-band transponder to the earth station at Ahmedabad, said Raghubanshi.
It may be mentioned here that the installation of AMS at RGSC (BHU) is a part of ISRO-sponsored nationwide 24 automated weather stations. The AMS has sensors capable of measuring radiation, energy and soil-water balance components continuously with a total of 26 quantities at half-an-hour interval.
For this, the sensors for air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, rainfall, solar radiation, atmospheric pressure, soil temperature, moisture and heat flux have already been placed at various sites in the biodiversity park of the RGSC.
According to J S Parihar, deputy director of ISRO-Space Application Centre (SAC), Ahmedabad, a databank of ISRO-agromet observations is being created at Ahmedabad which would soon be made accessible to the internet users.
He also emphasised that characterising the exchanges in energy, water and carbon dioxide within vegetation and atmospheric surface is important in developing the predictive ability to study the vegetation response to the climate change, which would be done through the station.
R P Singh, a scientist at SAC, said the data generated by the network would help in understanding the effect of vegetation climate using remote sensing and process based modelling.
A number of senior university officials including rector B D Singh and officer on special duty ( OSD) Onkar Singh were also present during the inauguration programme.
Make BHU a world-class varsity: V-C to students, teachers
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Varanasi: Reaching the top is difficult but retaining the top position is even more difficult, said BHU vice-chancellor D P Singh while addressing the students, teachers and non-teaching employees at the RGSC, Barkaccha, in the new academic session (2010-11) on Friday.
Referring to the recent visit of US Ambassador to India, Timothy J Roemer to the university, the vice-chancellor emphasised that the university has attracted worldwide attention and the onus for making it a world-class varsity rests with the students and teachers.
He said that the BHU is the first university to come up with a set of environmental policies.
Earlier, he also inaugurated the BPharma (Ayurveda) laboratory at the RGSC.
A number of senior university officials including director, Institute of Medical Science ( IMS), T M Mohapatra, and dean, faculty of ayurveda, V K Joshi were also present on the occasion.
