The India Meteorological Department (IMD) is celebrating its 150th year of establishment and is now looking to enhance its weather forecasting models using artificial intelligence (AI) and faster supercomputers. Despite struggling to predict small-level severe weather events, the IMD is setting up test beds in Odisha and Madhya Pradesh to better understand the physical processes that lead to thunderstorms and heavy monsoon rains, which could ultimately help improve forecasts. The IMD’s anniversary celebrations included the launch of “Panchayat Mausam Seva,” an initiative that aims to provide weather forecasts to farmers in every village, as well as the National Framework for Climate Services to mainstream climate information across various sectors.
IMD Director General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra stated that the organization plans to utilize its vast historical weather data, digitized since 1901, to develop forecasting tools and methods using AI and machine learning. The IMD has formed an expert group on AI-ML and is collaborating with top institutions for joint development of tools to enhance forecast accuracy. The IMD is also upgrading its high-performance computing systems to improve its numerical modeling capability, increasing its capacity from 10 petaflops to 30 petaflops. This upgrade will help generate more specific and localized weather information.
While the IMD has made significant progress in forecasting, Mohapatra acknowledged the challenges posed by predicting phenomena such as cloudbursts and small-scale severe weather events. He emphasized the importance of criticism to drive improvements in the forecasting system and highlighted the need to continuously enhance the observational system for detecting all types of weather. Mohapatra expressed confidence that India’s early warning and forecasting systems will continue to improve in the coming years to effectively address extreme weather events.
The source of the article is from the blog tvbzorg.com