Eye in sky but blind on ground
- Software glitch prevents Mumbai rain insight

By G. S. Mudur
The Telegraph
Monday, August 15, 2005

Indraprasth, Aug. 14 - If Indians had a little more faith
in the abilities of fellow Indians, weather scientists
could have given a better advance assessment of the rain
that devastated Mumbai.

Cameras aboard two Insat satellites orbiting the earth
for several years have never been fully used for weather
analysis because of software glitches on the ground,
space and weather scientists said.

The cameras (called charge coupled device, or CCD, which
is a sensor that is present in digital cameras) are on
the Insat-2E launched in April 1999 and on the Insat-3A
launched over two years ago. Software to analyse the
images from the cameras can generate information about
cloud, wind and moisture patterns.

The satellites have been transmitting images to the
ground, but software trouble has frustrated attempts to
use these images to extract data, scientists in the
Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) and the Indian
Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

Neither has made public the trouble with the software.

Weather scientists had hailed the cameras as a technology
milestone. But IMD scientists could not get crucial data
such as cloud movement and wind speed and direction from
the images during Mumbai's freak rain last month or
during Orissa's super-cyclone in October 1999.

The IMD had tried to develop the software for the camera
on the Insat-3A on its own, but had outsourced the task
for the Insat-2E to a Canadian company. Neither has led
to successful generation of weather data from the images,
Isro and IMD sources, who requested anonymity, said.

Accusing the IMD of lack of planning, independent
scientists also question the decision to outsource the
software rather than to collaborate with Isro which has
the expertise.

"It's a shame that so many years after the satellites
went into space, all possible data from the CCD cameras
is not available to users," said Jayaraman Srinivasan,
chairman of the centre for atmospheric and oceanic
sciences at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

Now, more than six years after the Insat-2E launch, the
IMD has asked Isro for software to process images from
the Insat-3A and Kalpana, the weather satellite.

"We'll also work together to develop software for the
Insat-3D to be launched next year," an IMD source said.

A senior IMD source said the Canadian company's software
could not be used successfully to extract data because
the camera aboard the Insat-2E was sending "contaminated
signals".

Isro sources admitted that there was a mild defect in the
camera, but said it was not unusable. Scientists at the
Space Applications Centre (SAC), Ahmedabad, have
successfully used the images to study vegetation and
other features on the ground, they said.

The IMD decided to tailor the Canadian software for the
camera aboard the Insat-3A. "But we've encountered
software bugs that need to be cleared up," a senior IMD
scientist said.

Space department scientists, however, say the efforts to
develop the software ran into trouble because the process
requires detailed knowledge of optical and electronic
features of each camera. Isro had declined to share this
with the Canadian company.

IMD sources said it decided to outsource the software
because expertise to develop it did not exist in India.
But senior scientists say SAC, Ahmedabad, has developed
software for satellite image processing.

A database of cloud patterns generated from several years
of CCD data may have helped scientists pick up the
signals of heavy rainfall, Srinivasan said.

More at:
http://www.telegraphindia.com/105081...ry_5116535.asp

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