NEW DELHI: India on Tuesday commissioned its High Performance Computer (HPC) system – named ‘Mihir’ (meaning Sun) – at the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting at Noida, Uttar Pradesh.
The facility will improve India’s capacity in weather forecasting and help it to come out with weather forecast down to the block level (for about 6500 blocks) across the country later this year. At present, such facility is available at district level.
The new system will be India’s largest HPC facility in terms of peak capacity and performance and will propel India’s ranking from the 368th position to the 30th in the list of top 500 HPC facilities in the world.
Dedicating the system to the nation, the Union minister of Earth Sciences Harsh Vardhan noted that the country will now also be ranked 4th – after Japan, UK and USA – for dedicated HPC resources for weather/climate community.
Stating that India’s scientific research capabilities can be compared to the best in the world, he said that the ministry of earth sciences, in collaboration with Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), has been providing district-level agro-meteorological advisories to farmers through 130 agro-met field units.
“Presently about 24 million farmers receive these advisories with information of weather Forecasts on district level. These services will now be extended to block level by establishing district centres (630 centres) with the help of ICAR’s ‘Krishi Vigyan Kendras’. It is planned to reach out to about 45 million farmers by July 2018”, said the minister.
Speaking about importance of the HPC, the secretary in the ministry of earth sciences (MoES), M Rajeevan, noted that the new facility will not only help in meeting the operational requirements of the MoES but also support research and development activities in the ministry and other academic institutions working on various problems related to Earth Science.
The new HPC facility is expected to improve the following services:
Weather forecasts at block level over India which can predict extreme weather events.
High resolution seasonal/extended range forecasts of active/break spells of Monsoon.
Very high resolution coupled models for prediction of cyclones with more accuracy and lead time.
Ocean state forecasts including marine water quality forecasts at very high resolution.
Tsunami forecasts with greater lead time.
Air quality forecasts for various cities
Climate projections at very high resolution.
Source : timesofindia
