Lok Sabha Question No. 257 (STARRED), answered on 2025-12-17
Subject: Satellite-based Weather & Disaster Forecasting Systems
Ministry: EARTH SCIENCES
Asked by: Shri Rajmohan Unnithan

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. *257

## TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, 17 TH  DECEMBER, 2025

## SATELLITE-BASED WEATHER & DISASTER FORECASTING SYSTEMS

## *257.       SHRI RAJMOHAN UNNITHAN:

Will the Minister of EARTH SCIENCES be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government plans to expand satellite-linked early warning systems and flood-forecasting networks for coastal districts and if so, the details thereof, districtwise particularly Kasaragod district of Kerala;
- (b) the initiatives taken by the Government to upgrade India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecasting stations and Doppler radar coverage in North Kerala; and
- (c) the timeline for commissioning new systems and the projected benefits for disasterprone coastal communities?

## ANSWER

THE MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND EARTH SCIENCES (DR. JITENDRA SINGH)

(a) to (c): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

## STATEMENT LAID ON THE TABLE OF THE LOK SABHA IN REPLY TO (a) to (c) OF STARRED QUESTION NO. *257 REGARDING "SATELLITE-BASED WEATHER & DISASTER FORECASTING SYSTEMS" TO BE ANSWERED ON DECEMBER 17, 2025

- (a) The Government has established an organized institutional mechanism based on various  technologies,  including  satellites  for  observing,  monitoring,  forecasting, and issuing early-warning alerts for major natural events such as cyclones, heavy rainfall, and extreme weather across the country, including coastal districts. The Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) serves as the nodal Ministry responsible for coordinating  these  efforts.  In  this  regard,  the  India  Meteorological  Department (IMD) works round the clock in coordination with other MoES institutions such as the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF), Noida, and the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad.

The  Government,  through  the  India  Meteorological  Department  (IMD),  has formulated  a  comprehensive  roadmap  to  expand  satellite-linked  early  warning systems and flood-forecasting networks in collaboration with CWC (Central Water Commission). The expansion is designed to cover all coastal districts of the country through upgrading the current capabilities and addressing the challenges associated with climate extremes and sea-level rise. In recent years, the capability of satellitebased monitoring has increased manifold. Currently, the INSAT-3DS satellite with six  imager  channel  is  providing  pictures  at  a  30-minute  interval.  The  infra-red, water vapour, and visible imageries at a very high resolution up to 1 km along winds (atmospheric motion vectors) and related products provided scope for improved monitoring of the weather development.

Currently, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) utilizes INSAT-3DR and the recently launched INSAT-3DS satellites. These satellites provide imaging at a temporal resolution (refresh rate) of 15 minutes and spatial resolutions ranging from 1 km to 4 km. While this supports district-level forecasting, the Government is now working on the INSAT-4th Generation satellites to achieve block-level precision. The upcoming Advanced Meteorological Imager on INSAT-4G will offer a faster refresh  rate  of  5-10  minutes,  allowing  for  the  real-time  tracking  of  rapidly developing weather events (such as flash floods) within specific districts.

Satellite  plays  a  very  important  role  in  detecting  severe  weather  phenomenon through  the  seasons,  such  as  (i)  Fog,  (ii)  cyclones,  (iii)  thunderstorms,  (iv) duststorms, (v) Heavy Rainfall, etc. Round-the-clock data is being received from INSAT-3DR/3DS geostationary and Oceansat-III Low-Earth orbiting satellites at Satellite  Meteorology  Division  of  IMD.  Data  are  being  sent  to  forecasters, Government agencies such as NCMRWF, IITM Pune, IMD website, etc. Apart from this, the data is also being regularly sent to GTS (Global Telecommunication System) and updated on the website.

Central Water Commission (CWC) under the Ministry of Jal Shakti is mandated to issue short-range flood forecasts with a lead time of up to 24 hours to concerned State Governments at identified locations. Timely flood forecasts are being issued when a certain threshold limit is reached. Further, the CWC is providing a Sevenday advisory flood forecast on its web portal https://aff.indiawater.gov.in/ for the same  350  stations  through  rainfall-based  mathematical  modeling.  CWC  takes immense  steps  and  adopts  various  dissemination  mechanisms  to  get  maximum reach to the flood warnings produced, so that mitigation measures can be adopted by State Governments, State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA), National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), and the public.

The  flood  forecasts  formulated  by  CWC  are  disseminated  to  all  stakeholders through the Flood Forecasting Website (https://ffs.indiawater.gov.in/)/https://aff.india-water.gov.in/. FloodWatch India 2.0 App/E-mail/Whatsapp/Facebook(CWCOfficial.FF)/X(Twitter-CWCOfficial\_FF), 'CWC Flood updates' (Youtube Channel), CAP Alert through NDMA Sachet  portal.  A  total  of  6274  CAP  alerts  were  issued  throughout  the country and disseminated to stakeholders during Monsoon 2025.

Recent improvement in the various components of the early warning system for various extreme weather events has definitely helped in reducing the loss of lives significantly. For example, around 7000 people had lost their lives in 1999 Odisha Super Cyclone, while it has been reduced to less than 100 over the entire region from impact of tropical cyclones during recent years. Accurate forecast of 1 cyclone saves around 1100 crore rupees in terms of expenditure towards payment of exgratia to kins of dead, cost towards evacuation, and savings to various sectors, e.g., Power, Marine, Aviation, Railways, etc. As a result of these new initiatives, the overall skill of forecasting these severe weather events has improved by 30-40% over the last 10 years, from 2014 to 2024, resulting in a significant reduction in lives lost over the years.

Suitable colour code is used to highlight the impact of the severe weather expected and signal disaster management about the course of action to be taken regarding an impending severe weather event. IMDs' Impact-Based Forecasting (IBF) provides localized risk assessments for vulnerable populations in advance of extreme events, such as cyclones.

IMD  uses  various digital platforms like Common  Alert  Protocol (CAP), Application Programming Interface (API), Website, Mobile Apps, social media etc. for timely sharing and dissemination of various data and warnings and bulletins across various user groups and directly to public. IMD has launched seven of its services (Current Weather, Nowcast, City Forecast, Rainfall Information, Tourism Forecast, Warnings, and Cyclone) with the 'UMANG' Mobile App for use by the public.  Moreover,  IMD  developed  a  mobile  App,  'MAUSAM'  for  weather forecasting,  'Meghdoot'  for  Agromet  advisory  dissemination,  and  'Damini'  for lightning alerts. A total of 9342 crore SMS have been sent since August 2021, and during  the  recent  cyclone  "MonTha",  a  total  of  77.64  crore  SMS  were  sent  to people.

- (b)-(c) A number of steps have been undertaken by the Government to prevent or minimise the loss  of  life  and  property  from  major  natural  events  such as  cyclones,  heavy rainfall, heatwaves, thunderstorms, etc. For improving the detection and prediction of these events at a more granular and temporal scale, there has been a quantum jump in the weather observational and modeling systems. To provide computational support for such high-resolution models and to enable them to run regularly in real-time, the computing facilities (Arunika and Arka) have also been substantially increased to integrate voluminous data and run mesoscale, regional, and global models at higher resolutions. Further, recently, a new Central Sector Scheme,  "Mission  Mausam",  was  launched  by  the  MoES  to  make  Bharat  a "weather-ready and climate-smart" nation. Various steps have been taken to ensure effective  dissemination  of  warnings  to  vulnerable  populations.  The  recently launched Bharat Forecasting System (BharatFS) has been developed primarily to improve short- and medium-range weather predictions.

IMD consistently issues timely alerts and  forecasts to the public and  concerned stakeholders across the country, including North Kerala. Doppler Weather Radar (DWR)  at  Kochi  (by  IMD)  and  Thiruvananthapuram  (by  ISRO)  is  already operational  in  Kerala.  The  region  of  North  Kerala  is  also  currently  under  the surveillance of the Doppler Weather Radar at Mangaluru in South Karnataka.

IMD has also brought out a web-based "Climate Hazard & Vulnerability Atlas of India" prepared for the thirteen most hazardous meteorological events, which cause extensive  damage  and  economic,  human,  and  animal  losses.  The  same  can  be accessed at https://imdpune.gov.in/hazardatlas/abouthazard.html.  The  Climate Hazard & Vulnerability Atlas of India has helped State Government authorities and disaster-management  agencies  identify  hotspot  districts  and  plan  appropriate preventive and adaptive measures to tackle extreme weather events.

India Meteorological Department (IMD), in coordination with other centres in the MoES, has developed an end-to-end GIS-based Decision Support System (DSS), which has been working as the front end of the early warning systems for the timely detection and monitoring of all-weather hazards across the country, including the States regularly affected by cyclones and other natural disasters. It is supported with specific severe weather modules to provide timely impact-based early warnings for extreme weather events like cyclones, heavy rainfall, etc., which devastate human lives, livelihoods, and infrastructure. The system utilizes historical data, including extreme  events, as well as real-time surface and  upper-air meteorological observations  available  for  the  Indian  region  and  its  neighbouring  areas.  It  also includes RADAR observations, available every 10 minutes, and satellite products every 15 minutes. It also uses numerical weather prediction products from a suite of models run in the MoES institutions. These include hyperlocal, regional, and global models.

Further, IMD plays a crucial role in safeguarding lives and property through its advanced observational network and forecasting systems, enabling timely preparedness  and  response  in  close  collaboration  with  the  National  Disaster Management  Authority  (NDMA).  The  entire  system  is  integrated  with  modern telecommunication technologies to ensure the timely and effective dissemination of information. This coordinated approach ensures that accurate and timely weather information reaches authorities and the public, enhancing disaster risk reduction efforts across the country, including disaster-prone coastal communities. Currently, 47 DWRs are in operation across India, with 87% of the total area of the country coming under radar coverage, including North Kerala. In the coming years, DWRs will be installed as per  the requirement  to cover  the remaining gap areas in the country, provide redundancy, and replacement of old radars in the DWR network under  Mission  Mausam  of  MoES.  The  Ministry  is  continuously  working  to strengthen  observational  capabilities  and  R&D  infrastructure  to  achieve  greater accuracy in weather forecasting. Further, the IMD has expanded its infrastructure for observations, data exchange, monitoring & analysis, forecasting, and warning services in the country, including disaster-prone coastal communities.

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