REUTERS
India is testing artificial intelligence (AI) to build climate models that improve weather forecasting as torrential rains, floods and droughts proliferate across the vast country. Climate change has triggered more intense weather events in India in recent years, resulting in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people in 2023, the independent Centre for Science and Environment estimated.
Accurate forecasting is particularly crucial in India, a country of 1.4 billion people and the world’s second-largest producer of rice, wheat and sugar. Expanding AI to more weather observatories could help generate higher-quality forecast data at a lower cost.
The India Meteorological Department expects the climate models and advisories it is developing to improve forecasts, said K.S. Hosalikar, head of climate research and services. The agency has used AI to generate public alerts about heat waves and diseases such as malaria.
The government said it wants to generate weather and climate forecasts by incorporating AI into traditional models and has established a center to test the idea through workshops and conferences.
“An AI model doesn’t require the high cost involved in running a supercomputer — you can even run it out of a good quality desktop,” said Saurabh Rathore, an assistant professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi.
Enhanced data also would let AI apply existing forecast models to more specific locations, experts say.
Weather agencies worldwide are focusing on AI, which can improve speed, and which the United Kingdom’s meteorological service says could revolutionize weather forecasting.
