PUNE: From the Himalayas to the Andamans, India is setting up a chain of long-term climate observatories as scientists at Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) work to build weather and forecasting systems calibrated for Indian conditions rather than adapt models designed elsewhere.The push, driven by IITM Pune and Ministry of Earth Sciences under Mission Mausam, covers indigenous weather instruments, higher-resolution models and a new observation network spanning the country’s most climatically distinct zones.IITM director Dr A Suryachandra Rao said the gaps identified in India’s weather science roadmap are being addressed systematically. “Three-dimensional printing of automatic weather stations is happening in India now and at a very large scale. That is one of the basic instruments required for weather and climate science,” he said.The institute has developed a one-km resolution model for Uttar Pradesh and district-level monsoon onset forecasts. Glacier expeditions have also begun through a separate group at the institute.The Bharat Forecasting System, an indigenous model developed at IITM, is now operational at India Meteorological Department (IMD), Rao said.
Climate models will steer study of Indian conditions
The climate observation network, led by scientist Suvarna Fadnavis, is designed to fix a longstanding weakness in Indian climate science, too few sustained measurements from too many different climatic zones. “We should know how weather is changing across different climatic regions and how they will impact people and ecosystems,” she said.The longer goal is to develop climate models built around Indian conditions rather than relying on systems developed overseas and adapted for the country. “When you take a model from another country, it is tuned for the observations and climate of that region. We have tuned the model for Indian climate change scenarios. This has led to a new Earth System Model (ESM), the IITM-ESM, India’s first,” Fadnavis said.Data from the new observation network would help further refine projections and improve their usefulness at local scales. According to Fadnavis, state govts, including Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, have already sought climate projections from IITM.With the first phase of Mission Mausam complete, IITM scientists are now turning to AI-assisted forecasting. “We are getting into hybrid models where we bring in AI and ML,” Anoop Mahajan said. Unlike conventional forecasting systems that rely primarily on atmospheric physics, the hybrid approach combines weather models with machine-learning techniques that can rapidly analyse large volumes of observational data, potentially improving the accuracy of local-scale forecasts.National Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting in Noida has developed a weather model that operates at a resolution of one km, while IITM has developed anAI-based system to forecast the onset of the monsoon locally.Scientist Vinu K Valsala they are partnering with startups to develop weather and climate-monitoring technologies in India to reduce dependence on imported instruments and accelerating the development of tools used in forecasting, pollution monitoring and climate research.IITM is developing indigenous instruments for pollution monitoring, lightning detection and soil-moisture measurement. Scientists said affordable air-quality sensors could help expand pollution-monitoring networks, while India’s first indigenous Electric Field Mill could strengthen lightningmonitoring capabilities.Researchers are also working on technologies to better understand rainfall formation and soil moisture, data that could ultimately improve weather forecasts and drought assessments.
