Examine weather elements critically; Air Marshal S K Nair

Air Office Commanding in Chief of Training Command, Air Marshal S R K Nair today exhorted aviation meteorologists to examine weather elements critically and analyse them comprehensively on how they affect flights.
Though the Indian Air Force (IAF) was modernising itself with induction of latest aircraft and weapon systems, these systems are weather sensitive, he said.
To exploit their full operational capabilities, they need to be effective with accurate weather prediction, Nair said, adding that to sustain the Air Force in such a state of readiness requires all variables to fall in place precisely.
He was speaking after inaugurating a 12-day National seminar on meteorology on 'Observational and Computational Tool for Nowcasting (OBSCON) at the Air Force Administrative College here, in association with Bharathiar University.

'Nowcasting' refers to Short range weather forecasting in the fields of Meteorology and has become a challenging task for forecasters due to high variability in weather.
With the variability of sensitive observational platforms and computational tools there is a significant scope of possibilities in this field, an AFAC press release said.

The seminar aims to introduce and expose participants to the realms of Nowcasting, during which they would also be exposed to the basics of meteorological satellites, RADAR and lightning detection systems, it said.
The workshop is being attended by participants from National Universities, Research Organisations and institutions from across the country like Indian Meteorological Department, Indian Army, Indian Navy, Bharathiar University, IITs, ISRO apart from Indian Air Force (IAF).

With the increase in civil aviation in India and elsewhere, the impetus on mitigating the ill effects of any aviation related weather hazard was gaining importance, AFAC Commandant V P S Rana said.
OBSCON-2017 will enable the participants to not only understand the subject, but also to effectively contribute towards better forecast solution, he added.