AI weather forecasting: IMD says predicting severe weather events challenging, turns to new tech
AI weather forecasting: As it celebrates 150th year of its establishment, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has now set its eyes on fine-tuning its weather forecast models using artificial intelligence (AI) and faster supercomputers even though it struggles to predict small-level severe weather events. In an interview with PTI, IMD Director General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said the weather office was setting up test beds in Odisha and Madhya Pradesh to better understand the physical processes leading to the formation of thunderstorms and heavy monsoon rains which could eventually help improve weather forecasts.
The IMD will kick start its 150th-anniversary celebrations on Monday with the launch of ‘Panchayat Mausam Seva' that aims to take weather forecasts to every farmer in every village and the National Framework for Climate Services to mainstream climate information in every sector and activity.
Mohapatra said from issuing cyclone warnings at the Kolkata port in the late 19th century to issuing nowcasts that reach the mobile phones of users, the IMD has come a long way and now plans to use the latest advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to improve its forecasting capabilities.
"Being an old organisation, IMD has weather data since 1901 which has been digitised. AI is data science where we can utilise all this historical data to develop tools and methods for forecasting," he said.
Mohapatra said the IMD has formed an expert group on AI-ML and was also collaborating with NITs, IITs, IIITs, academic and R&D institutions for joint development of tools which can be used to improve forecast accuracy and sectoral applications.
"Nowcast can be a very good area where AI/ML can contribute
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