High jump towards future ‘Tech-Era’: India unveils 1st supercomputer ‘Pratyush’ for accurate weather forecasts
Pune, January 9: 2018 being a ‘Tech-Era’ for India! Taking a high jump towards future and entering into a tech-era, India unveiled its supercomputer – Pratyush. Installed with high definition technology ‘Pratyush’ is India’s first multi-petaflop supercomputer.
‘Pratyush’- India’s fastest supercomputer was unveiled by the Union Minister for Earth Sciences Dr.Harsh Vardhan. It is located at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) in Pune and a deliver a peak power of 6.8 petaflops.
‘Pratyush’ is expected to add significantly to the nation's capacity in weather forecasting and climate monitoring and takes India to the fourth position - only behind the UK, Japan, and the USA in terms of dedicated high powered computing resources for weather and climate monitoring.
‘Pratyush’, which is essentially an array of computers, draws 4 Petaflops of its peak power from IITM, Pune, and the remaining 2.8 Petaflops come from the National Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast (NCMRWF) at Noida.
Introduction of ‘Pratyush’, which cost the taxpayers over Rs. 450 Crores, is expected to predict extreme weather events and droughts. Additionally, it will also be able to provide more accurate cyclone forecast as well.
“As a result of added computing power, the number of farmers who receive weather information through text messages is expected to increase from 24 million at present to 45 million by 2019," said Union Minister Harsh Vardhan. "With the help of Pratyush, the block level forecast will be possible in another one year. The forecast of next monsoon will also get better," added the minister. Further, Harsha Vardhan said that "MoES has been trying to scale down the weather forecast, which is presently given at district level, to block level.”
The supercomputer named as 'Pratyush' meaning the Sun, will be a national facility for improving weather and climate forecasts and services under the umbrella of the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Govt. of India.