There is a technical boost for climate research

Despite the fact that farmers in North India are protesting for their demands—among them, the legal minimum support price—space scientists in Sriharikota, on the east coast, recently launched a satellite aimed at enhancing meteorological services and observations for agriculture and other industries. A specialized meteorological satellite called INSAT-3DS was created to enhance climate forecasts and projections for agricultural and fishing communities, which are both subject to the unpredictable effects of climate change. By 2050, yields of rice and wheat might be significantly reduced as a consequence of climate change. Farmers may better prepare for the negative effects of climate change with the aid of timely alarms, early warnings, and improved long-term forecasts.

With this launch, India’s oldest satellite program, the Indian National Satellite (INSAT), which was first conceptualized about 50 years ago, has reached a mature stage. The first satellite in the series, INSAT-1 A, was launched in 1982 after the series was authorized in 1975. Launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, the first batch of satellites was purchased from Ford Aerospace and Communications Corporation. The India Meteorology Department (IMD) was able to join the satellite meteorology era thanks to the INSAT-1 series of satellites. Cyclones, thunderstorms, low-pressure systems, depressions, western disturbances, etc. were all monitored using satellite data. With devices like the locally produced Very High-Resolution Radiometers, the INSAT-2 series, which was debuted in 1992, represented a technical advancement. This made it possible to get cloud photography data of higher quality for regular weather forecasting and analysis.

However, the INSAT-1 and 2 series satellites were not just intended for weather forecasting; they also included payloads for communications, broadcasting, and meteorology, making them versatile. There were many INSAT-2 series spacecraft that carried no meteorological payload at all. The IMD relied on US defense satellites for several sorts of data, such as the inner core structure of tropical storms. In order to overcome these obstacles, the space agency and the IMD launched Metsat in 2002. Later, the spacecraft was renamed Kalpana-1 in honor of NASA astronaut Kalpana Chawla, who was born in Karnal and died in a space shuttle accident the same year. The IMD looked for a specialized satellite for its services and climate research at the same time. As a consequence, the third-generation meteorological satellite, INSAT-3D, was launched in 2013 and was followed by another one in 2016.

The third satellite in this series is the one that was launched on February 17. Funding for it came from the Ministry of Earth Sciences. The Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune and the National Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting in Noida, among other institutions, will make use of the satellite’s data. Comprehensive observations of the weather, climate, and ocean will be provided by INSAT-3DS. The onboard equipment can provide photographs of the globe and its surroundings in six wavelength bands and offer data on the temperature, humidity, and other vertical profiles of the atmosphere. Data on land and ocean surface temperatures, cloud characteristics, fog, precipitation, snow cover, snow depth, fires, smoke, aerosols, and total ozone will all be provided by the satellite.

Measures were being made to improve ground capabilities for receiving and processing satellite data in addition to developing the satellite section. The IMD installed computer systems to handle and analyze data in real time, as well as additional earth stations to receive data from meteorological satellites. When the United States refused to allow the import of a large supercomputer for weather modeling in the 1980s, the Center for Development of Telematics was established to build high-speed computing infrastructure domestically. Since then, India has been a world leader in the provision of supercomputing facilities linked to meteorology. The Ministry of Earth Sciences signed orders for $100 million with a French firm last year to develop two new supercomputers, which would be located at its centers in Noida and Pune, for advanced climatic and atmospheric research.

The creation of pertinent information products for use by the general public and organizations like farmers and fishermen, such as advisories, early warning systems, and short- to medium-range localized predictions, is the sequence’s most crucial component. The IMD has created services throughout the years, such as text messaging services that provide farmers with weather and climatic information. It now features multilingual mobile apps. The usefulness of these services for agricultural decision-making and the resulting outcomes—like lower crop losses from extreme weather events or higher yields from timely weather information and advisories—are the main points of contention. It is even more important for the IMD to establish credibility with timely and helpful information products in light of the proliferation of information sources, including social media platforms like YouTube, WhatsApp, and others, which often serve as the source of inaccurate or irrelevant information.

An essential step has been taken in India’s quest to advance its technical prowess in a vital sector of the economy: the launch of INSAT-3DS. We have progressed from purchasing satellites and using foreign rockets to send them into orbit to manufacturing huge meteorological satellites in-house and using Indian rockets to place them in the right orbits. The Indian Space Research Organization, the IMD, and other scientific institutions worked closely together to develop programs to develop systems and sub-systems; they also identified technological gaps and needs carefully; they supported industry and long-term planning was provided by successive governments. All of this was made possible by these initiatives.

A new dimension has been introduced to the space technology and industry in recent years with the advent of tiny and micro satellite constellations by commercial companies. India must continue down the path of technological self-reliance, investing more in the development of cutting-edge weather satellites, enhancing ground infrastructure, setting up regional data processing centers, and making sure that end users receive reliable climate services, given the dynamic nature of weather and its shifting patterns due to global climate change.