Scientists use underwater robots to study India’s monsoon

Scientists from the University of East Anglia will release seven underwater robots from an Indian ship into the Bay of Bengal next week to study the influence of ocean conditions on the monsoon rainfall, a university press statement said on Tuesday.

In Britain, meanwhile, researchers at UEA, the University of Reading, and the National Oceanography Center (NOC) will use that information to create computer models, determining how the ocean affects weather systems and rainfall over India.

Better forecasting would improve the livelihoods of India’s more than 200 million farmers and agricultural labourers, who are reeling from devastating drought.

It is also reported that the scientists are also planning to fly a plane equipped with scientific equipment to measure the atmosphere under the Bay of Bengal as part of the multi-million-pound study of the monsoon which hit the southern parts of the country last week.

Lead researcher Prof Adrian Matthews, from UEA’s School of Environmental Sciences, said: “The Indian monsoon is notoriously hard to predict”.

More accurate monsoon forecasts could be a major boon to the Indian economy: one estimate from Reuters suggests that it could boost farm production by 15 percent by helping farmers identify the best time to sow their crops.

India’s farming sector is heavily reliant on the monsoon season, which runs from June to September.

May states are facing an acute shortage of water, which means the farmers are dependent nearly entirely on the monsoon rains from June until September.

But things are changing rapidly, India’s meteorology office is spending $60 million on a new supercomputer to improve the accuracy of one of the world’s most vital weather forecasts in time for next year’s rains.

Accurate prediction of intense downpours and breaks in the monsoon is essential to help farmers plan their crop planting and to aid communities to prepare for floods and droughts.

Since the Indian Meteorological Department failed to predict India’s biggest drought in 40 years in 2009 the country would like that the new computer be installed at the earliest. The system will use 3D modeling to better understand how seasonal rains will develop. But Matthews and his team anticipate that the swimming robots, which aren’t put in peril by strong winds or high waves, may be able to provide them with some long due data about how ocean conditions affect rainfall patterns.