Developments and achievements in atmospheric sciences and space meteorology in India

Abstract

Space research in India began in the early sixties, with the establishment of the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station. Indigenously developed rocket payloads were carried in foreign rockets and flown for studying various atmospheric parameters, which are unique to the tropics. In the seventies, Indian-made rockets became available. Since then, there has been rapid progress in the technical advancement, which helped the atmospheric scientists in taking up more challenging and contemporary problems, related to mesospheric winds, ionospheric irregularities, stratospheric ozone, role of aerosols in atmospheric radiative transfer, etc. India entered into the satellite era in 1975, with the development of the Aryabhatta satellite, the first Indian experimental satellite, followed by Bhaskara-1 in 1979, which carried a microwave radio meter for retrieval of atmospheric water vapour and cloud liquid water contents. Since then, there have been several satellites, such as the INSAT series for meteorology and communication, Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite series, and Stretched Rohini Satellite System (SROSS) for in situ observation of the ionosphere, which are all built in India and launched from Indian soil. High quality data being obtained from these satellite missions are helping scientists in taking up problems that are of regional and global scales and in studying the changes that are taking place in the earth atmosphere system, in a more holistic way. This paper attempts to provide an overview of the scientific developments and highlights some results.