India's weather forecaster mulls drones over balloons for weather data

New Delhi: India Meteorological Department (IMD) has decided to set off drones for gathering weather data. The initiative will replace weather balloons that are sent from various regions of the country twice a day.

The radiosondes attached to the balloons record atmospheric pressure, temperature, wind direction, and speed. These balloons sent from 550 different regions rise to 12 km and transmit data to the receivers via radio signals. Radiosondes are non-retrievable as they are not manually controlled.

While speaking on using drones as an alternative, M Ravichandran, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, said "We are now exploring the possibility of using drones to gather this atmospheric data which is crucial for weather forecasting."

Drones, on which the sensor equipment is attached, can be controlled to any desired altitudes. As this activity cannot be performed on the traditional method of using air balloons, drones can be considered the best alternative.

"It is expected that drones should be capable, economically feasible, easily deployable and recoverable and should be technically comparable or superior to currently deployed radiosondes for upper air observations up to the boundary layer of upper air atmosphere," reported the officials.

A test runs on the drones will be performed to an alternative of 5kms. The accuracy of the collected data will later be compared to analyse the level of performance. The IMD has also invited industry and academia to analyse the demonstration.