PARLIAMENT QUESTION: Automatic Weather Stations

• AWS are unmanned, sensor-based surface observatories that auto-transmit weather parameters (temp, RH, rainfall, wind, pressure) at sub-hourly intervals to IMD servers.
• India operates 1,008 AWS under IMD; ~200 more (chiefly Agro-AWS) planned in 2026 under Mission Mausam Phase-II.
• High-yield UPSC overlap: Mission Mausam, Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), disaster management, agro-advisories, climate-resilience.