Bharat Forecast System (BharatFS) boosts extreme rainfall prediction accuracy by 30%

India has significantly enhanced its weather forecasting capabilities with the newly developed Bharat Forecast System (BharatFS). Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Dr. Jitendra Singh informed the Rajya Sabha that the indigenous system improves the accuracy of extreme rainfall event predictions by 30% compared to the previous model.

Key Features of BharatFS

• High Resolution: BharatFS is the only global weather prediction model in the world to run at a real-time 6 km horizontal resolution. This is a major leap from its predecessor, the GFS T1534 model, which had a resolution of approximately 12 km.
• Advanced Technology: The system is powered by the Triangular Cubic Octahedral (TCo) dynamical grid, which allows it to capture local weather features, making it particularly effective for complex terrains like the Himalayas and the Western Ghats.
• Supercomputing Power: The efficiency of BharatFS is boosted by India’s latest supercomputing facilities, Arka at the IITM, Pune, and Arunika at the NCMRWF, Noida. This has reduced the forecast runtime from nearly 12 hours to just 3–6 hours.
• Targeted Forecasts: The system is designed to provide weather forecasts at the panchayat cluster level, enabling the delivery of targeted advisories to farmers and local authorities.
• Operational Success: In research mode, the model has demonstrated a 30% improvement in predicting extreme rainfall events and has shown notable improvements in rainfall forecasts over India’s core monsoon region.

(Source: DD News)