Fueled by waters that are now steadily warming in the Pacific Ocean near the equator, the developing Super El Niño is expected to become one of the strongest on record this autumn and winter, increasing the potential for extreme weather across the globe, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
India, like many countries, has already been grappling with a global trend of increasingly complex and costly weather patterns that threaten lives and livelihoods, damage property, disrupt transportation and strain the economy. One of the biggest challenges when predicting India’s monsoon, fog, air pollution and other severe weather has been gaps in high-resolution, ground-based observations needed to accurately represent interactions between the atmosphere, ocean and land surface.
As part of India’s Mission Mausam initiative to advance forecasting capabilities – launched last year by Prime Minister Narendra Modi – a partnership between the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), the US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and Colorado-based Radiometrics Corporation is demonstrating how government institutions and private technology providers can work together to close data gaps and improve early warnings.
Prime Minister Modi positions India as a global weather and climate leader
India’s diverse geography, varied climate and reliance on agriculture as a primary livelihood make it particularly vulnerable to extreme weather.
Recognizing this, Modi’s government approved Mission Mausam on September 11, 2024, as a landmark initiative led by the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) to make the nation “weather ready” and “climate smart” and “revolutionize India’s weather and climate services while cementing its global leadership in this critical field,” the MoES said in a news release.
Key to Mission Mausam’s goal of improving forecasts and warnings is the expansion of automated, ground-based observing systems to augment satellite systems and greatly increase the amount of real-time hyper-local data needed to feed into models and support informed decision-making for agriculture, disaster management, rural development and other sectors.
From Colorado to India
Under the guidance of the MoES, IITM is working with Radiometrics Corporation to meet one of Mission Mausam’s primary objectives: to strengthen observational networks and fill gaps in hyperlocal weather data.
Radiometrics has a long history of delivering state-of-the-art weather observation, forecasting, alerting and decision-support solutions. Its equipment is used by more than 70 customers worldwide: government agencies, militaries, research centers and universities whose operations depend on accurate and timely weather information.
The company’s SkyCast system integrates observations from multiple sensors, including a passive radiometer and active vertical wind profiler, to continuously monitor winds, temperature, humidity and other atmospheric conditions at the surface and aloft. Such data is critical to operational forecasts for rapidly changing conditions, including dense fog, extreme pollution and severe weather.
India recently became the 19th country to deploy a SkyCast system, installed at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi earlier this year. An additional installation is expected at Jewar Airport, followed by expansion across other airports in India, according to Dr Jitendra Singh, India’s Union Minister of State for Earth Sciences.
To help turn observations into actionable forecasts, Radiometrics and IITM are partnering with NCAR, also based in Colorado. NCAR is funded by the US National Science Foundation and managed by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.
The collaboration combines continuous atmospheric measurements from Radiometrics’ SkyCast system with advanced numerical models jointly developed by IITM and NCAR’s Research Applications Laboratory (RAL), which leverages decades of atmospheric and Earth system research to apply advanced modeling expertise to practical weather, water and air quality challenges.
“NCAR and IITM have a long-standing collaboration dedicated to modeling weather hazards and air quality,” said Rajesh Kumar, RAL’s deputy director and a principal scientific connection between NCAR and India. “This partnership has already successfully co-developed air quality and fog early-warning systems for major Indian metropolitan areas, including Delhi.”
Expanding partnerships and growing global opportunity
The collaboration between IITM, NCAR and Radiometrics demonstrates how the public and private sectors can work together to deliver innovation where it is needed most.
“This is a strong example of a successful public-private partnership and international cooperation,” said Vern Tharp, co-founder of the nonprofit Western Water and Weather Intelligence Center (W3IC) and advisor to Radiometrics. “It brings together publicly funded research and privately developed technology to provide practical solutions that can improve lives, protect property and create measurable economic value.”
The partnership between Radiometrics and India is poised to grow. IITM has ordered two additional SkyCast systems, according to Radiometrics CEO Eric Plomondon, and several other branches of the Indian government have expressed interest in acquiring the system.
India is far from alone in confronting the impacts of changing weather patterns. Countries around the world are facing threats that include wildfires, drought, floods, avalanches, hurricanes and typhoons. That reality is increasing demand for hyper-local, ground-based observations to augment satellites and other existing observing systems.
“The need for hyper-localized, timely and actionable weather intelligence and forecasts to support critical decision support functions within local, county and state governments is here and increasing,” said Bill Mahoney, former director of NCAR’s RAL and now an advisor to W3IC.
Radiometrics and W3IC are collaborating to bring public-private partnership solutions like the one being deployed in India to other nations and communities around the world that are facing growing weather and climate risks.
Demonstrating return on investment – through better forecasts and a profitable business case for companies developing innovative observing systems and their investors – is essential to scaling this business model. According to market analysis firm Market Research Future, the global market for automated weather observation systems will grow from approximately US$2.87bn in 2025 to US$5.64bn by 2034.
In other words, weather has become big business – and it’s getting even bigger.