Develop models to forecast unseasonal rains: ISRO chief

Indian meteorologists have to develop new models to predict unseasonal rains, which damaged rabi crops in many parts of the country causing huge losses, the space agency chief said on Wednesday.

"This is the job of meteorologists. They have to come up with new models, which make use of large amount of information/data and high performance computer systems to predict unseasonal rains," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman A.S. Kiran Kumar told reporters here at a function.

Admitting that satellites do not give advance information on unseasonal rains in odd seasons like spring, he said images from dedicated satellites for weather like Kalpana-1 were based on current information.

"Based on lot of studies and algorithms, the meteorology department should be able to project into future," Kiran Kumar said on the margins of a three-day seminar, symposium and expo held to mark the "World Metrology Day", organised by the Metrology Society of India here.

Unseasonal rains, thunderstorms and hailstorms in March-April destroyed most of the standing crops in the western and northern regions, forcing the central and state governments of the affected states to compensate distressed farmers to minimise their losses.

The state-run ISRO launched Kalpana-1 as its first dedicated meteorological satellite using a polar rocket in September 2002.

Though a cluster of Indian weather satellites have been able to predict cyclones and deep depressions in the sub-continent and alert in advance cyclone-prone states like Andhra Pradesh and Odisha to evacuate thousands of people to minimise loss of life, their satellite imagery have not been of much help forecast severe droughts or unseasonal rains over the years.