Fog is a visible mass consisting of cloud water droplets suspended in the air or near the Earth’s surface. The presence of heavy and extended period fog in the northern regions of India is one of the major weather hazards, impacting aviation, road transportation, economy and public life in the world’s most densely populated region.
Maximum fog occurrence over the Northwest India is about 48 days (visibility < 1000m) per year, and occurs mostly during the December-February time period.
All India annual morning poor visibility days (PVD <4 km) has increased from 6.7 to 27.3 % days.
The objectives of the Winter Fog Experiment (WIFEX) are to develop better now-casting (next 6 hours) and forecasting of winter fog on various time and spatial scales, and help reduce its adverse impact on aviation, transportation and economy, and loss of human life due to accidents. We need a reliable forecasting system for Fog occurrence.
WIFEX was conducted in a pilot mode at IGIA during last winter, and will be continued during December 2016 till February 2017.
The main scientific objective of this project is to study the characteristics and variability of fog events and associated dynamics, thermodynamics and fog microphysics, with the aim to achieve better understanding of fog life cycle and ultimately improve capability in fog prediction.
In addition to Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, India Meteorology Department (IMD), National Center for Medium Range Weather Forecast (NCMRWF), Airport Authority of India, GMR, Indira Gandhi International Airport and Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Mohali are also participating in this observational campaign.