Indian Govt Testing AI For Accurate Weather Forecasts By CIOTechOutlook Team

Indian Govt Testing AI For Accurate Weather Forecasts

CIOTechOutlook Team | Friday, 22 December 2023, 10:35 IST

As per top weather official, the Indian government is testing artificial intelligence (AI) to construct climate models to better weather forecasting as severe rains, floods, and droughts spread over the huge country.

Global warming has triggered more intense clashes of weather systems in India in recent years, increasing extreme weather events, which the independent Centre for Science and Environment estimates have killed nearly 3,000 people this year, as per economic times.

Weather forecasting agencies throughout the world are focusing on AI, which may reduce costs and improve speed, and which the Met Office claims might "revolutionize" weather forecasting, with a recent Google-funded model outperforming traditional approaches.

Accurate weather forecasting is especially important in India, which has 1.4 billion people, many of whom are underprivileged, and is the world's second-largest producer of rice, wheat, and sugar.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecasts the weather using mathematical models and supercomputers. Using AI in conjunction with a larger observation network could result in higher-quality forecast data at a reduced cost.

K.S. Hosalikar, chief of climate research and services at IMD, noted that the department expects the AI-based climate models and advisories it is creating to help enhance forecasts.

The weather service has utilized AI to issue public notifications about heatwaves and diseases like malaria. He stated that the company intends to expand its weather observatories, delivering data down to the village level and potentially offering higher-resolution data for forecasts.

The government announced that it intends to develop weather and climate forecasts by mixing artificial intelligence into traditional models, and that it has established a center to test the notion through workshops and conferences.