The integrated Airport Meteorological Instrument System (AMIS), which is currently operational at eight airports in the country, will be extended to another 46 airports as part of the India Meteorological Department's (IMD) modernisation programme. The AMIS is operational at the Amritsar, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Guwahati, Jaipur, Mumbai and New Delhi airports. This facilitates automatic acquisition, processing, dissemination and display in real time, of meteorological parameters affecting landing and take-off operations, according to a report by The Times of India.
S Krishnaiah, Additional Director General - Meteorology at IMD's Pune office, said, "State of the art meteorological instruments are required for measuring the Runway Visual Range (RVR), which refers to the distance over which the pilot of an aircraft on the centreline of the runway can see the surface markings delineating the runway." The RVR also plays a key role in determining the kind of visual aides like the Instrument Landing System (ILS), that are required to be installed at the airports for the pilots to effect smooth landings and take-offs. |