IIT Hyderabad sets up Raindrop Research Facility for precise rainfall prediction

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Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad has established a world-class Raindrop Research Facility (RRF) for simulating atmospheric conditions from the clouds to the ground in order to better predict rainfall. The facility will simulate atmospheric conditions from the clouds to the ground in order to better predict rainfall.

Member of NITI Aayog, Government of India, Dr. V K Saraswat inaugurated the facility in the presence of Prof B S Murty, Director, IITH, Prof Vidyasagar M FRS, Distinguished Professor, IITH, guests from other institutes, faculty, staff, and students of IITH.

Saraswat, said, “Raindrop facility being set up at IIT Hyderabad is one of its kind. It will help in understanding the processes involved in the formation of raindrops, followed by their impact on the environment and climate change. It will be useful in the prediction of weather. This kind of research was initially done to understand space, rocket engines, and similar things. But now the interaction with the atmosphere is going to be very predominant here, the impact of humidity, temperature, and environmental parameters for the formation of rain clouds, and quantity of rain takes place. This is a very important facility and the research will be very useful for climate control.”

Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IITH) is one of the eight new IITs established by the Government of India in 2008. The institute has a strong research focus with approximately Rs. 700 crores of sanctioned research funding, with PhD scholars accounting for about 30% of total student strength. IITH has more than 8100+ research publications with 120,000+ Citations, 190+ Published Patents, 2,000+ projects, and about 100+ startups that have generated more than 1000 jobs and a revenue of Rs. 800 crore.

Complimenting RRF at IITH, Prof B S Murty, Director, IITH, said, “Prof. Sahu, a faculty in the Chemical Engineering Department at IITH, is one of the stars of the country working in the area of raindrop dynamics. After a lot of research, Prof Sahu and his team were able to set up the first-of-its-kind experimental facility, which can predict raindrop dynamics at various altitudes. This facility is expected to provide a lot of information on weather forecasting, particularly on rainfall. It is not only going to be useful for our country but also to the whole world in predicting rainfall with much better precision. I congratulate Prof Sahu and look forward to the contributions emerging from this facility.”

Accurate rainfall prediction is one of the challenges in environmental research due to its relevance to understanding climate change and its accompanying socio-economic impacts. However, it is far from perfect. “Rainfall is influenced by several factors and atmospheric conditions. India experiences high unpredictability in rainfall making it a distinct and complex process compared to the rest of the world. An accurate understanding of Indian rainfall will help us understand global climate change,” said IITH authorities in a statement.

Explaining the uniqueness of the facility, Prof Kirti Sahu, lead researcher of RRF & Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering of IIT Hyderabad said, “One of the key limitations in rainfall modeling is the lack of fundamental knowledge of the microphysical processes like coalescence, breakup and phase change, in the actual atmospheric conditions. Using the novel experimental facility developed at IITH, the temperature can be varied from -10°C to 40°C, and relative humidity can be maintained from zero to saturation level.”

“We can mimic the dynamic atmospheric conditions from cloud to ground and estimate the shape and size distributions of raindrops at various altitudes. This information will be used to improve rainfall prediction. We use cutting-edge machine learning-based digital in-line holography technology to predict the raindrop size distribution. This methodology is a far better choice than the other measurement methods now in use,” Sahu added.

Elaborating on the advantages of the facility, Dr. Lakshmana Dora Chandrala, Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, said, “The machine learning-based digital holography technique developed at IIT Hyderabad has recently emerged as a powerful tool for capturing three-dimensional information about raindrops with high spatial resolution. This technique will be beneficial for improving rainfall forecasts when combined with the unique experimental facility.”

 

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