Published Date: Jan 6, 2014
SDPI Press Release (January 06, 2014)
It
is required to have a policy research to develop proper fog forecasting
& monitoring system, along- with a revival of ministry of climate
change and relocation of traffic during fog hours. This was the
conclusion drawn by the experts on a seminar held on “Fog Frequency
across South-Asia: A Climate Change Perspective” at Sustainable
Development Policy Institute, Islamabad here on Monday.
Dr.
Faisal Saeed Syed, Assistant Professor, Department of Meteorology,
COMSATS Institute of Information Technology shared his study, which was
conducted on the climatology, inter-annual variability and trends in fog
occurrence over the period 1976-2010, using observational data from 82
stations distributed across India and Pakistan. He discussed that fog
covers an extensive area, approximately 3,000 km from Pakistan to
Bangladesh across north India from west to east, running parallel to the
foot hills of the Himalayas. The fog variability over the whole region
is coupled and therefore likely governed by some large scale phenomenon
on the inter-annual time scale. According to this study the fog
frequency has increased more than 3 times in the last 35 years and this
increase shows different regimes with respect to both mean and variance.
While
talking about the methodology of his study, he said that we detect the
fog in ERA-Interim 3 hourly, surface and model level forecast data,
using the concept of cross over temperature and boundary layer
stability. “The gradual increasing trends are also found in specific and
relative humidity over the region, which is highly correlated with
observed and detected fog” he added.
Addressing
the seminar, Azmat Hayat Khan, Director ( Drought Monitoring &
Early Warning Centre, Islamabad) said that this climatic shift pose
serious threat to South Asian regions by increasing their vulnerability
and affecting agriculture, livelihood, and economics of the region. He
said that situation demands immediate policy actions along-with the
measures to protect agriculture and health of people.
Shakeel
Ramay, Senior Researcher, SDPI shared that the burning of low quality
of coal is causing smog not only in Pakistan but in India as well. He
suggested that research institutes and metrological department should
start working with provincial government to solve this issue.