IITM has played vital role in improving weather forecast: Ravichandran

Lauding the contribution of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) to weather prediction systems, Dr M Ravichandran, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, said on Thursday that it is important to translate research into models to improve forecasting.

He was addressing the IITM's diamond jubilee function here.

''IITM has made a significant contribution to improving the prediction, understanding the weather and forecasting system. It has also made a significant contribution in terms of publications, but it is important that publications are translated into models so as to improve the forecasting,'' he said.

Though we know much more about external factors which influence the monsoon, not much is known about its internal dynamics, especially in the Indian Ocean, Ravichandran said.

He also launched on this occasion an upgraded version of lightning alert app `Damini' in regional languages and indigenously developed High-Resolution Global Forecast Model.

Currently, the GFS (Global Forecast System) model, originally adopted from NCEP, USA, is being used for numerical weather prediction. PTI SPK KRK KRK