The India Meteorological
Department (IMD) has begun satellite-based digital weather broadcast
services to the rescue of our fishermen and seafarers. The usefulness
of meteorological forecasts and warnings highly depend on the
speed and reliability with which they are disseminated to the
recipients. Unlike the high frequency terrestrial radio communication,
the Satellite Broadcast Service is very efficient and cost-effective.
The new services will help save the lives of hundreds of fishermen
who get killed every year in Indian seas due to cyclonic storms
and bad weather conditions.
The IMD will provide
the data to be uplinked by the World Space Corporation through
their satellite uplink station at Singapore. The IMD has signed
an agreement for this with the corporation, a private global
operator providing satellite services. IMD will procure and
distribute 100 audio receiving equipment to small fishing boats
as demonstration pieces to start with. Commercialised on mass
scale, it will become cheaper enough to be affordable by our
fishermen.
This will also
help serve our defence services, shipping, coastal and deep
sea fishing interests as well as far-flung land locations, in
receiving meteorological data, cyclone warnings, forecasts,
satellite cloud pictures and weather facsimile charts.
Most users of meteorological
information world-wide have switched over to satellite based
communication as it is totally unaffected by terrestrial disturbances.
It was time, India switched over to it.
