Pune hosted the 12th edition of South Asian Climate Outlook Forum (SASCOF)

• Pune hosted the 12th edition of South Asian Climate Outlook Forum (SASCOF)

• The Forum was attended by meteorologists from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.

• This was the sixth SASCOF meeting hosted by India.

• Countries under SASCOF — Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and Maldives — share weather services with each other.

=> About SASCOF

• SASCOF was established in 2010 as a platform where meteorologists from South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries along with Myanmar, could discuss some of the common weather and climate-related matters.

• All these South Asian countries — except for Afghanistan, which is located in extreme northwest — experience common weather and climatological characteristics, like Southwest monsoon.

• Such a platform was needed to plan risk management and adaptation for minimising the impacts of climate variability.
India has hosted six editions so far.

• Since 2015, the forum issues Climate Outlook even for the Northeast monsoon.

=> India’s role

• The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) encourages co-operation and establishment of Regional Climate Outlook Forums in every region that share similar weather and climate.

• For the South Asian region, we have SASCOF.

• India is leading the forum since other countries in this region do not have capabilities or infrastructure like High-Performance Computing (HPC) for carrying out Long Range Forecast (LRF) or extended range forecasts.

• WMO has recognised Pune office of IMD as the Regional Climate Centre (RCC).

=> World Meteorological Organization (WMO)

• The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is an intergovernmental organization with a membership of 191 Member States and Territories.

• It originated from the International Meteorological Organization (IMO), which was founded in 1873.

• Established by the ratification of the WMO Convention on 23 March 1950, WMO became the specialised agency of the United Nations for meteorology.

• The Organization is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.

Link : https://wt6q7.app.goo.gl/NvFlScgR3cGVl04C3