Satellite meteorology in India – An overview

235-245The growth of satellite meteorology in India during the last thirty years, beginning with the establishment of ground equipment to receive the automatic picture transmissions by the US polar orbiting satellites, is traced. The impact of India’s own satellite, INSAT, on operations meteorology in recent times and the complex nature of satellite data processing are discussed in detail. The usefulness of INSAT imagery and derive quantitative products, particularly over data-sparse oceanic regions, is described. The successful exploitation of INSAT’s communication capabilities for meteorological data dissemination, collection of data from remote platforms and disaster warnings to coastal areas are also reviewed. Finally, the research applications of INSAT data in areas of monsoon variability, climate studies, physical initialization of numerical models, etc. are dealt with