Weather Station Opens At Bakul Library In Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar: In order to facilitate the people to have easy access to information regarding climate and related data, a weather station was opened at the Bakul Library in Satyanagar of Bhubaneswar on Sunday.

Chithra Arumugam, Principal Secretary, Science and Technology Department inaugurated the weather station, which has been installed by the US Consulate General, Hyderabad in partnership with the Bronx Community College of the City University of New York (CUNY), USA.

Prof Neal Phillip, Chairperson of the Department of Chemistry, Earth Sciences and Environmental Sciences, Bronx Community College of CUNY, who installed the weather station along with Prof Paramita Sen, explained its features and how it could be used to the volunteers of BAKUL.

The data from the weather station can be accessed by the public to know about significance of climate data and climate change. It will help monitor micro-climate parameters like temperature, air-pollution levels, air quality, humidity, solar radiation, ultraviolet rays, wind and precipitation among others in the city. This data will be available online for anyone from anywhere.

Salil Kader of the US Consulate said they had already installed weather stations in XIM and Sri Sri Universities. Stating that their next destinations are SOA and KIIT Universities, he said they set up weather stations at universities which have departments on Climate Sciences or Sustainability.

Though Bakul Library is not an academic institution, the weather station here can educate large and diverse groups of young people as it has been working with children and youth from different backgrounds, he said.

Appreciating the network among Bakul Foundation, the US Consulate and the College in the US, Chithra Arumugam said science thrives when institutions network. She said that she was excited by the possibilities that the weather station presented to develop a scientific temper in children and youth.

She proposed to Bakul to help create 100 little projects on climate science around the weather station involving students of schools and colleges and offered all support from her side either from the Science and Technology Department.

Sujit Mahapatra of Bakul Foundation informed that they had already created a group of young climate enthusiasts, who were keen on using the weather station for active climate monitoring. They would also mentor and educate school and college children on climate change with the help of the weather station, he added.

Before the inauguration of the weather station, a quiz competition on climate change was conducted by Bivash Rath and Mukti Pradhan of the Odisha Quiz Association.