India to Predict Monsoon Rains With Supercomputer Accuracy
In an effort to stay one step ahead of the summer monsoon season, Indian scientists are embarking on an ambitious and unprecedented project to build computer models that will allow them to predict the movements of erratic monsoons weeks in advance. If successful, the Indian government thinks it can drastically alter economic outcomes for hundreds of millions of people whose lives depend directly on India's agriculture sector. The ability to predict the movements and impacts of monsoons ahead of time would go a long way toward augmenting India's disaster management services, but in the long term it's very much more important to the economic health of the nation, which derives 15 percent of its economic prosperity to agriculture. The June-September monsoon season provides three-quarters of India's annual rain during a "normal" season--though this summer's below-average rains have led to fears of drought and famine even though some parts of the country...