India gets its first avalanche monitoring radar in Sikkim

#GS-01 Geography, #GS-03 Disaster Management

About Avalanche:

Avalanches are masses of snow, ice, and rocks that fall rapidly down a mountainside.
Avalanches are classified into two types:
slab avalanches, which are built of tightly packed snow and are caused by the collapse of an underlying weak snow layer, and
loose snow avalanches, which are composed of looser snow.

Slab Avalanche is far more damaging than loose snow displacement as it is able to destroy forests and small villages in its course.
Once a slab avalanche starts, the slab shatters into many separate blocks. These snow blocks break up into ever-smaller pieces.
Some of the pieces rise into the air as a moving cloud of icy particles. The cloud races downhill at very high speeds.
A slab will move very quickly downhill, with a speed up to 130 km/h.
It starts off as a cohesive unit and shattering into smaller pieces as it descends.

Loose snow avalanches happen when poorly bonded surface snow slides downhill due to the effect of gravity.
They are common on steep slopes and are seen after a fresh snowfall.
Since the snow does not have time to settle down fully or has been made loose by sunlight, the snowpack is not very solid.
Such avalanches have a single point of origin, from where they widen as they travel down the slope.
They are also known as sluffs, these types of avalanches are generally smaller and less dangerous than slab avalanches, but they can still pose a hazard in the wrong terrain.

An avalanche monitoring radar, the first of its kind in India, has been installed in North Sikkim by the Army and Defence Geoinformatics and Research Establishment.
It can detect avalanches within three seconds of its trigger and will assist in saving lives of troops and reducing damage to property.