Weather forecasts in India will now become more accurate
What's the story
India has launched the Bharat Forecast System (BFS), a state-of-the-art weather model with the highest resolution in the world.
Developed by Pune's Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) researchers, the new forecasting system offers predictions within a 6km grid.
The BFS was made possible by the installation of supercomputer Arka at IITM last year, which can perform data-crunching tasks four times faster than its predecessor, Pratyush.
Technological advancement
A major leap in India's meteorological capabilities
The BFS model marks a major upgrade in India's meteorological capabilities.
"The previous supercomputer 'Pratyush' used to take up to 10 hours to run the forecasting model. Arka performs the same data-crunching within four hours," researcher Parthasarathy Mukhopadhyay said.
The new system gives insights into weather events likely to occur in a grid of 6km by 6km, unlike earlier models that predicted for 12km by 12km.
Data utilization
It will use data from 40 Doppler weather radars
The BFS model will leverage data from a network of 40 Doppler weather radars across India, allowing the weather office to issue more localized forecasts.
The number of radars is expected to grow to 100 in the future, paving the way for nationwide nowcasts - weather forecasts for the next two hours.
This will allow accurate and granular weather forecasts up to panchayat level.
Capabilities
BFS will offer forecasts for tropical region
The BFS can give 6km resolution forecasts for the tropical region which lies between the 30°S and 30°N latitudes.
Meanwhile, global forecast models run by European, British and US weather offices have a resolution of 9km to 14km, according to Dr. M Ravichandran, Secretary of the Ministry of Earth Sciences.
Impact
BFS will help in disaster risk reduction, agriculture
The BFS is expected to be instrumental in disaster risk reduction, water resource management, agriculture, and public safety. A senior official from the Earth Sciences Ministry said this landmark project marks a major leap in India's self-reliance in meteorological sciences.