Weather forecasts are simply that: they are forecasts meaning that it is an estimation of sorts in which it attempts to predict the next day’s weather based on data and other historical information. However sometimes weather forecasts aren’t always right. How many times have you left the house with an umbrella only to not have it rain, and vice versa?For regular folks like us this is only a minor convenience, but to countries like India, such predictions are crucial which is why according to a report from Reuters, the Indian government is spending a whopping $60 million in the development of a supercomputer that will be able to predict monsoons which are key to helping their agricultural industry thrive.
So what’s wrong with the current setup? So far India has relied on numerical and statistical predictions which unfortunately failed the country in 2009 where it missed the country’s biggest drought in 40 years. The idea of this supercomputer is that it will be able to generate 3D weather models collected by balloons, planes, and satellites.
It is also expected to be 10 times faster than the current supercomputer that is supplied by IBM, and because of its potential to offer up better forecasts, it could also raise farm output in the country by as much as 15%. According to M. Rajeevan, the top scientist in the ministry of earth sciences, “If everything goes well, by 2017 we’ll make this dynamical model operational by replacing the statistical model.”
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