A four-member team from the Institute of Technology’s Chemical Engineering department will monitor the phenomenon.

The team includes Institute Director S N Upadhyaya, B N Rai, M K Mondal and R S Singh.

BHU will be 23rd such centre in the country under the Inter-Government Panel project of ISRO coordinated by Vikram Sarabhai Space Research Centre, Thiruvananthapuram.

Among the 22 other similar centres, two are located at IIT-Kanpur and IIT-Kharagpur.

The team will primarily collect data on air pollutants in east UP and Bihar, including black carbon emissions from thermal power plants in Sonebhadra district and levels of soot, dust, acid droplets, fog and mist, team member Rai told The Indian Express on Thursday.

The collected data will then be analysed and modelled for meteorologists to forecast weather changes.

A sum of Rs 48 lakh has been granted for the project, which was cleared on December 14.