The climatologists in India will have realtime data on cyclones by 2011, when the county will get its first aircraft that can fly right into the eye of a storm.
“We had facilitated a meeting with the weather researchers of India and the US in 2007 and a science plan had already been drafted,” said Arabindo Mitra, executive director of the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF), which was established under an agreement between India and the US in March 2000.
The project proposal is a collaboration of India’s National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting and US-based National Centre for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).
Mitra said the aircraft project was currently in the development stage with technology support from the NCAR. “The aircraft will be equipped with all the necessary devices and manned by a pilot and a scientist. A pilot experiment will be taken up shortly,” he said.