Bharat Forecast System: India’s latest innovation to identify accurate weather prediction

What is Bharat Forecast System?

Bharat Forecasting System (BFS) aims to provide highly accurate and localized weather predictions. It is a one-of-a-kind system with the exceptional ability to generate forecasts within a range of 6 kilometers. Built on a triangular-cubic-octahedral (TCO) grid, the system is a high-resolution model capable of covering regions up to 6.5 km in detail.

“The tropical region is chaotic in terms of weather. Changes are often unpredictable, and high-resolution models are essential to capture spatial variations,” said M. Ravichandran, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, as quoted by PTI.

Reportedly, even American and British forecasting systems do not match the capabilities of the Bharat Forecasting System. Before its official launch, the system was tested in four villages, where it successfully provided four distinct forecasts per village, showcasing its localized forecasting capacity.

Highlighting the utility of BFS, IIT-M Director Suryachandra Rao stated, “The new BFS offers a resolution of 6 km in the tropics and about 7–8 km near the poles. Our current system has a resolution of about 12 km. This marks a remarkable improvement in forecasting accuracy.”

The BFS became a reality with the installation of the new supercomputer ‘Arka’ at the IITM campus last year. The supercomputer boasts a processing capacity of 11.77 petaflops and a storage capacity of 33 petabytes (1 petabyte = 1,000 terabytes).

Union Earth Sciences Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh said, “The efforts are Indian, the technology is Indian, and the beneficiaries are Indian. This is true Atmanirbharta. Moreover, this system will also benefit other tropical regions globally, which face the most complex and variable weather challenges.”

Significance of BFS

The Bharat Forecasting System is poised to become a vital tool in managing India’s volatile weather conditions, offering not just short-term forecasts but also nowcasts (immediate 0–2 hour predictions).

Launched the first-of-its-kind, state-of-the-art indigenous “Bharat Forecast System” #BharatFS by ‘India Meteorological Department’ under the Ministry of Earth Sciences #MoES.

A major leap in IMD’s capabilities, this breakthrough places India among global leaders in weather… pic.twitter.com/Qs1RMBaqga

— Dr Jitendra Singh (@DrJitendraSingh) May 26, 2025

Utilising data from 40 doppler weather radars across the country, the BFS aims to boost the accuracy of India’s weather predictions by up to 30 percent. The system is expected to reduce crop loss and anomalies by improving extreme weather predictions — with a 30% improvement in extreme rainfall forecasts and a 64% enhancement in core zones, using real-time modeling based on the ‘Triangular Cubic Octahedral Grid model.’

MoES Secretary Ravichandran emphasized, “This is a significant advancement, but we will not stop here. Our efforts will be focused on continuously enhancing our forecasting capabilities.”