Ranchi, March 24 Scientists at the India Meteorological Department are using artificial intelligence and advanced technologies to improve the accuracy and speed of weather forecasts, a senior official said.
Abhishek Anand, Deputy Director at the IMD center here, said that AI-powered tools are enabling more precise data analysis, improving the reliability of predicting changes in weather patterns.
"AI tools and other advanced technologies are being used by IMD scientists for data analysis, enabling more reliable predictions about changes in weather patterns with less computational power. With the use of these new technologies, even short-term changes in weather patterns are being easily detected," he said while addressing a programme here.
Anand said that the Ranchi center adopted the IMD's Bharat Forecast System (Bharat FS) in May last year, which features a 6-km resolution grid, an improvement over the earlier 12 km model, resulting in a 30 per cent rise in extreme rainfall prediction accuracy.
He said that supercomputing upgrades such as 'Arka' and 'Arunika' have reduced forecast runtime from 12 hours to three to six hours, enabling faster and more accurate short-range forecasts for monsoons, western disturbances, and fog.
Mission-specific tools, including ensemble forecasting, Impact-Based Forecasting (IBF), and AI/ML models such as 'Mithuna-FS', have improved severe weather prediction accuracy by 30-40 per cent over the past decade, Anand said.
The IMD is also planning to introduce AI-based weather models such as 'GraphCast', 'Pangu', and 'ForecastNet', while Doppler radars are proposed to be installed in Ranchi and Deoghar to strengthen real-time monitoring of nor'westers and heavy rainfall, he said.
Anand also emphasised the need for collective responsibility towards environmental protection to support more accurate weather forecasting.