India Set To Replace Weather Balloons With Drones

Various studies have suggested that specialised drones equipped with sensors to gather weather data could be an efficient successor to the traditional weather balloons.

India is set to deploy drones to gather atmospheric data that is currently collated by sending sensors through weather balloons released from at least 55 locations across the country twice every day.

The sensors embedded in a radiosonde, which is a telemetry instrument carried by a weather balloon, record atmospheric pressure, temperature, wind direction and speed as the hydrogen-filled weather balloon soars up to 12 km height and transmit data to the ground receiver through radio signals.

However, weather balloons and radiosondes are unretrievable as they drift afar from weather stations that release them in the atmosphere.

"We are now exploring the possibility of using drones to gather this atmospheric data which is crucial for weather forecasting," M Ravichandran, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, told PTI.