- Massive Floods in Dubai –
- Recently, one of the heaviest rainfall was recorded in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), after a severe thunderstorm hit the country. The storm had initially hit Oman before it landed in the UAE.
- On the other hand, Mumbai, lying on the other side of the Arabian Sea, has been undergoing a humid heatwave for the past few days, having a high relative humidity of 55%. UAE lies in the arid regions of the world, so such heavy rainfalls are unusual there.
- On average, Dubai experiences 94.7 mm of rain in a year. But this event was historic as it brought more than 142 mm of rainfall that had soaked Dubai over 24 hours.
Possible Causes of Extreme Rain:
- Climate Change- Climate Change along with multiple factors associated with it like patterns of natural climate variability, such as El Niño and La Niña, has contributed to the extreme rain.
- Global warming- It has led to higher temperatures causing evaporation of water not only from land but also oceans and other water bodies, causing a warmer atmosphere to hold more moisture. For every 1 degree Celsius rise in average temperature, the atmosphere can hold about 7% more moisture.
- Cloud Seeding- Cloud seeding is a process in which chemicals such as silver iodide crystals are implanted into clouds to increase rainfall in an environment where water scarcity is a concern. UAE, located in one of the hottest and driest regions on earth, has been leading the effort to seed clouds and increase precipitation.
- Thunderstorm- Thunderstorms are generated by atmospheric imbalance and turbulence caused by a combination of several conditions, including unstable, warm air rising rapidly into the atmosphere; sufficient moisture to form clouds and rain; and upward lift of air currents caused by colliding weather fronts (cold and warm), sea breezes, or mountains.
- Satellite Technology Day 2024 –
- U R Rao Satellite Centre (formerly known as ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC)), Department of Space, in Bengaluru recently celebrated Satellite Technology Day (STD) 2024, marking the significant milestone of the 50th anniversary of India’s first satellite launch, Aryabhata, on 19th April 1975.
- The event highlighted URSC’s achievements along with recent missions like Chandrayaan-3, Aditya-L1, and X-ray Polarimeter Satellite which garnered national and international recognition.
- The Aryabhata spacecraft, named after the 5th Century CE mathematician and astronomer, was India’s first satellite. It was completely designed and fabricated in India and launched from Kapustin Yar, Russia on 19th April 1975.
- On that day, India became only the world’s 11th nation to send a satellite into orbit. Aryabhata was built by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) to conduct experiments in X-ray astronomy, aeronomics, and solar physics..
- India’s Biggest Climate Clock –
- Recently, the Council of Scientific &Industrial Research (CSIR), installed and activated India’s biggest Climate Clock at the CSIR Headquarters in New Delhi as a part of the Earth Day Celebrations.
- The event signifies CSIR’s aim to spread awareness about climate change and to make people energy literate. It was launched in 2015 to provide a measuring stick against which viewers can track climate change mitigation progress.
- It is a graphic to demonstrate how quickly the planet is approaching 1.5°C of global warming, given current emissions trends. It also shows the amount of CO2 already emitted, and the global warming to date.
- The date shown when humanity reaches 1.5°C will move closer as emissions rise, and further away as emissions decrease. As of 4th April 2024, the current climate temperature is 1.295°C.