India’s IMD to use AI for precise weather forecasts

India currently uses advanced mathematical models and various other weather forecasting methodologies led by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD). Recently, the IMD is putting in place processes to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) for weather forecasting and forecasting, which could reduce costs and loss of lives.

The IMD is implementing AI to forecast weather at a granular scale with greater accuracy, given that the country faces extreme weather events, ranging from droughts to floods and beyond. In fact, according to the Center for Science and Environment, almost 3,000 people have lost their lives in India due to extreme weather conditions. The country of 1.4 billion people is facing such situations due to worsening global warming which has disrupted weather systems across the world.

Now, the IMD uses supercomputers and sophisticated mathematical models to predict weather forecasts. It takes data from various weather stations spread across India. Integrating AI would enable the IMD to make accurate weather forecasts. Britain's MET Office has praised the Google-funded AI model as it outperformed traditional forecasting methods. According to Saurabh Rathore, assistant professor at IIT-Delhi, using AI models can help reduce costs as running a supercomputer costs much more than running AI models on standard desktop computers.

India is home to 1.4 billion people and is the second largest producer of sugar, wheat and rice, among others. It is therefore imperative to forecast weather conditions accurately, considering the amount of agricultural products produced and human safety at risk. With the initiative in place, the IMD should be able to provide accurate forecasts.

Note that IMD currently uses AI for public alerts related to diseases such as malaria as well as heat waves. With AI at the helm, the IMD will strengthen weather observations with village-level data collection that would enable finer resolution for accurate weather forecasting.

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