Japan India hold their first joint air drill as China concerns grow (GS Paper 2, International Relaion)
Why in news?
- Japan and India held their first joint air drills as both countries step up military exercises with other countries amid worries about China’s assertiveness.
- About four F-2 and four F-15 fighters are expected to take part in the drills and will run through around Jan. 26 at an airbase in Ibaraki prefecture, northeast of Tokyo. While the two have trained together before in other countries, this is the first one-on-one training of its sort.
Key Highlights:
- India is fielding Russian-made fighters, Su-30Mki and US-made C-17 Globemaster heavy lift transport aircraft in the maiden exercise.
- The two sides will carry out air complex combat drills and exchange best practices reflecting their growing defense cooperation.
Background:
- The exercise comes as Japanese Prime Minister completed a trip to Italy, the UK, Canada and the US to bolster his country’s alliances to help deter China.
- Japan is also a member of the Quad grouping that includes India, Australia and the US and is seen as a check on Beijing’s assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific.
- The joint drills with India grew out of a security meeting in New Delhi in November 2019 but had been put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic.
- India is the fifth country Japan has hosted in this type of bilateral exercise after the US, Australia, Britain and Germany.
India-China:
- Tensions between India and China have been simmering along a disputed border between the two since a June 2020 clash, the worst in more than 40 years.
- That fighting was centered around the Himalayan region of Ladakh, along their 3,488-kilometer (2,170-mile) frontier known as the Line of Actual Control.
India to be fully covered by Doppler Radar Network to predict extreme weather events
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Why in news?
- Recently, the Science & Technology Minister has said that the entire stretch of India will be covered under the Doppler Weather Radar Network to better predict extreme weather events more accurately. The complete coverage is expected to be achieved by 2025.
Key Highlights of 148th Foundation Day of the IMD:
- Speaking at the 148th Foundation Day of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), he said that steps have been taken to increase the radar network from a mere 15 in 2013 to 37 in 2023, and work is underway to add another 25 more in the next two to three years.
- The IMD has augmented the Doppler Weather Radar network in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Ladakh, and Jammu & Kashmir, which will help further predict extreme weather events more accurately. During the event, he dedicated 4 Doppler Weather Radar Systems to the Western Himalayan States of Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, and Himachal Pradesh.
- He also dedicated 200 agro-automated weather stations to the nation. Under the Agro-Meteorological Services, the center is planning to establish 660 District Agro Meteorological Units (DAMUs) by 2025 and increase the coverage from 3,100 blocks in 2023 to 7,000 blocks in 2025.
Contribution of IMD:
- Climate Services are very important for short and long-term planning and strategic development and IMD has already initiated these services in five major thrust areas of Agriculture, Health, Water, Energy, and Disaster Risk Reduction and has lined up plans to expand them through customization of products.
- IMD's accuracy has increased by about 20-40% for different severe weather events forecast during the last five years and that the weather department is making the best use of space-based observations of INSAT-3D and 3DR, OceanSat satellites for prediction of other weather events.
- The recently introduced Flash Flood Guidance in 2021 has been augmented further by increasing the number of watersheds from 30,000 to 1,00,000 in the country in 2022. It is being provided every six hours to Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka apart from our national use.
James Webb telescope discovers its first Earth-sized exoplanet
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Why in news?
- Recently, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced that the James Webb Space Telescope has discovered its first new exoplanet.
- Researchers have labelled the planet as LHS 475 b, and it’s roughly the same size as Earth.
Details:
- Located just 41 light-years away, the planet orbits very close to a red dwarf star and completes a full orbit in just two days.
- Researchers hope that in the coming years, they will be able to detect more Earth-sized planets. So far, most of the discovered exoplanets are similar to Jupiter as Earth-sized planets are much smaller in size and harder to discover with older telescopes.
What are exoplanets?
- Exoplanets are planets that orbit other stars and are beyond our solar system.
- According to NASA, to date, more than 5,000 exoplanets have been discovered. Scientists believe that there are more planets than stars as each star has at least one planet orbiting it.
- Exoplanets come in a host of different sizes. They can be gas giants bigger than Jupiter or as small and rocky as Earth.
- They are also known to have different kinds of temperatures, boiling hot to freezing cold.
Why and how they are studied?
- Studying exoplanets not only broadens understanding of other solar systems but also helps piece together information about our own planetary system and origin.
- However, the most compelling reason to learn about them is to find extraterrestrial life.
Characteristics of an exoplanet:
- In a bid to understand the characteristics of an exoplanet, researchers look for its mass and diameter along with determining if it is solid or gaseous or even has water vapour in the atmosphere.
- Another important element of the study is finding out the distance between an exoplanet and its host star. This helps scientists determine if a discovered world is habitable or not.
- If an exoplanet is too close to the star, it might be too hot to sustain liquid water. If it’s too far, it might only have frozen water. When a planet is at a distance that enables it to have liquid water, it is said to be in the “Goldilocks zone”.
- With the launch of the Webb telescope, scientists believe that they would now be able to better study exoplanets as it is the only telescope that is capable of characterising the atmospheres of Earth-sized planets orbiting distant stars.
How are exoplanets discovered?
- Discovering exoplanets is quite tough as they are small and hard to spot around their bright host stars.
- Scientists rely on indirect methods, such as the transit method, which is “measuring the dimming of a star that happens to have a planet pass in front of it”.
What are red dwarf stars?
- The newly discovered exoplanet orbits around a red dwarf star. Such types of stars are the most common and smallest in the universe. As they don’t radiate much light, it’s very tough to detect them with the naked eye from Earth.
- However, as red dwarfs are dimmer than other stars, it is easier to find exoplanets that surround them. Therefore, red dwarfs are a popular target for planet hunting.
