On May 26, 2025, the Indian government unveiled the Bharat Forecasting System (BFS), marking a historic breakthrough in the country’s weather forecasting technology development. The Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) at Pune University is the brains of BFS, which provides hyperlocal weather forecasts with the use of the supercomputer Arka.
BFS: What is it?
The start of BFS was announced on May 26, 2025, by the federal government, which was led by Jitendra Singh, the minister of earth sciences. Better planning and resource optimization are made possible by BFS’s increased capacity to forecast weather for complex phenomena pertaining to catastrophe risk, agriculture, hydrology, and even public safety.
Essential Elements of the Ultra-High Grid Resolution Bharat Forecasting System:
– 6 km x 6 km, which is an improvement above the prior resolution of 12 km
Allows for accurate forecasting at the district and panchayat levels.
Arka’s supercomputing power
11.77 petaflops is the speed.
33 petabytes of storage
Processing Time: Cuts the Pratyush system’s prediction-generating time from 10 hours to only 4 hours.
The ability to nowcast:
– Provides predictions in real time up to two hours in advance
40 Doppler weather radar data are integrated, with ambitions to increase to 100.
Global Benchmarking
|
Model |
Forecast Resolution |
|
India (BFS) |
6 km (highest globally) |
|
European ECMWF |
9–14 km |
|
U.S. GFS |
9–14 km |
|
UK Met Office |
9–14 km |
In terms of high-resolution weather forecasting, particularly for tropical areas, India is now the global leader.
Reach and Coverage: Suitable for tropical regions (30°N to 30°S)
The whole Indian continent is covered (8.4°N to 37.6°N).
Growth and Support
Scientists from IITM Pune, including Parthasarathy Mukhopadhyay, developed
The Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) is supporting
Installing Arka, India’s premier weather-focused supercomputer, made it possible.
Importance and Uses
Improved crop planning and advisory services in agriculture
Disaster Management: Prompt alerts for heat waves, floods, and cyclones
Urban Planning: Up-to-date views on climate risk
Water Management: Better planning for irrigation and reservoirs
Public safety: More rapid notifications of severe weather conditions
By enhancing the nation’s resilience against climatic problems and promoting self-reliance in weather technology, India’s BFS establishes a new worldwide standard.
