Consider the following activities :
- 1.Identification of narcotics on passengers at airports or in aircraft
- 2.Monitoring of precipitation
- 3.Tracking the migration of animals
In how many of the above activities can the radars be used ?
Show answer
Answer: B. Weather radars track rainfall and storms, so radar is used to monitor precipitation. Radar is also used to track bird and insect migration (radar ornithology). Finding narcotics on passengers uses X-ray scanners, sniffer dogs and trace detectors, not radar. So only two.
Watch for: Students know weather radar but may not know radars routinely track flocks of migrating birds.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Wrong because radar is used both for precipitation and for tracking animal migration.
- C. Wrong because narcotics on passengers are detected by X-ray and trace detectors, not radar.
- D. Wrong because radar is widely used in weather monitoring.
Source to check: India Meteorological Department, Doppler Weather Radar network (mausam.imd.gov.in); Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Radar' (applications)
Answer from the official UPSC key. Written and fact-checked by AI against the official key. Spotted a mistake? Report it.