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Context:

India is building its first cloud chamber at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) in Pune.

Details: 

• Mission Mausam aims to improve weather forecasting in the country and also ‘manage’ certain weather events, and on-demand, enhance or suppress rainfall, hail, fog, and, later, lightning strikes.
• For effective weather modification, one of the most important areas is cloud physics, in which India will have to strengthen research. 
• Towards this end, India is establishing a first-of-its-kind cloud chamber at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune.

What is a cloud chamber?

A cloud chamber resembles a closed cylindrical or tubular drum, inside which water vapour, aerosols, etc. are injected. Under the desired humidity and temperature inside this chamber, a cloud can develop.

Objective: The objective of establishing a convective cloud chamber is to gain a better understanding of cloud physics under conditions commonly affecting Indian weather systems.

How Does it Work?

An energetic charged particle (for example, an alpha or beta particle) interacts with the gaseous mixture by knocking electrons off gas molecules via electrostatic forces during collisions, resulting in a trail of ionized gas particles. 

The resulting ions act as condensation centers around which a mist-like trail of small droplets form if the gas mixture is at the point of condensation. 

These droplets are visible as a "cloud" track that persists for several seconds while the droplets fall through the vapor. These tracks have characteristic shapes. For example, an alpha particle track is thick and straight, while a beta particle track is wispy and shows more evidence of deflections by collisions.

Why is India building a convective cloud chamber?

Cloud physics involves the study of cloud behaviour during normal and extreme conditions; intra-particle interactions inside a cloud; the formation of rain droplets and ice particles; the influence of moisture added into the atmosphere due to cyclones or low-pressure systems; and interactions between different cloud layers, among others.

What were cloud chambers replaced by?

Cloud chambers were the main type of detector used in particle physics until the 1950's, when they were replaced by bubble chambers and spark chambers. These are more sensitive and practical devices that allow more detailed and precise measurements of particle properties to be made.

Bubble chambers: A bubble chamber is a vessel filled with a superheated transparent liquid (most often liquid hydrogen) used to detect electrically charged particles moving through it. It was invented in 1952 by Donald A. Glaser, for which he was awarded the 1960 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Spark chambers: A spark chamber is a particle detector: a device used in particle physics for detecting electrically charged particles. They were most widely used as research tools from the 1930s to the 1960s and have since been superseded by other technologies such as drift chambers and silicon detectors.

Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM)

• It is a scientific institution based in Pune, Maharashtra, India for expanding research on the Ocean-Atmosphere Climate System required for the improvement of Weather and Climate Forecasts. IITM focuses on research in tropical meteorology and climate science. 
• It functions as a national center for basic and applied research in monsoon meteorology. 
• It is an autonomous institute of the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India.

About Mission Mausam- 

Mission Mausam, Weather forecast in India

Must read on Weather Forecast in India:  https://www.iasgyan.in/daily-current-affairs/weather-forecasting-in-india

Must read on Project Sagarmala: https://www.iasgyan.in/daily-current-affairs/sagarmala-project-17

Must read on IMD: https://www.iasgyan.in/daily-current-affairs/india-meteorological-department

Must read on IOR: https://www.iasgyan.in/daily-current-affairs/indian-ocean-region

Source:

INDIAN EXPRESS

PRACTICE QUESTION Q.The cloud chamber has played a pivotal role in the development of particle physics by enabling the visualization of ionizing radiation. Discuss the working principle of a cloud chamber and its modern-day applications. (250 words)