Now, drones instead of weather balloons to gauge atmosphere

New Delhi, July 20

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The government is in the process of exploring possibilities to deploy drones rather than weather balloons to gather atmospheric data from various locations.

Currently, radio sounding is the only method to measure vertical profile of physical properties of the upper air atmosphere and this is done by launching a transmitter interfaced with sensors aloft a weather balloon.

Weather balloons are widespread in use since long, but they pose a limitation to successful recovery of sensor and also limit the use of more sophisticated and widespread sensors due to underlying implicit cost involved.

The Minister of State (Independent charge) for Ministry of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Jitendra Singh today informed the Lok Sabha that with the advent and sophistication in the unmanned aerial systems, commonly known as drones, the Indian Meteorological Department is exploring the possibility to replace weather balloons with drones in order to gather up per year observations. This new technology is expected to make the sensor is recoverable and reusable does likely to benefit the Indian Metrological Department.