ML4WX

Local & station forecasting

Artificial neural network model for precipitation forecast over Western Himalaya using satellite images

Piyush Joshi, M. S. Shekhar, Ashavani Kumar, Jitender Kumar Quamara

MAUSAM ·

PaperPDF

In one sentence. An ANN trained on Kalpana IR and water-vapour satellite pixel values forecasts 24-hour precipitation at six Western Himalaya stations with a 0.78-0.95 probability of detection.

Abstract

Kalpana satellite images in real time available by India meteorological department (IMD), contain relevant inputs about the cloud in infra-red (IR), water vapor (WV), and visible (VIS) bands. In the present study an attempt has been made to forecast precipitation at six stations in western Himalaya by using extracted grey scale values of IR and WV images. The extracted pixel values at a location are trained for the corresponding precipitation at that location. The precipitation state at 0300 UTC is considered to train the model for precipitation forecast with 24 hour lead time. The satellite images acquired in IR (10.5 - 12.5 µm) and WV (5.7 - 7.1 µm) bands have been used for developing Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model for qualitative as well as quantitative precipitation forecast. The model results are validated with ground observations and skill scores are computed to check the potential of the model for operational purpose. The probability of detection at the six stations varies from 0.78 for Gulmarg in Pir-Panjal range to 0.95 for Dras in Greater Himalayan range. Overall performance for qualitative forecast is in the range from 61% to 84%. Root mean square error for different locations under study is in the range 5.81 to 8.7.

Labels

Topic
Local & station forecasting, Observations & remote sensing
Type
New model or method
Method
Classical ML (trees, GP, linear, kernels)
Time scale
6 h–3 days
Domain
Local / station
Data
Satellite, Station / in-situ
Status
Pre-operational / experimental
Identifiers
DOI:10.54302/mausam.v73i1.5083 OpenAlex:W4206130121
Added
2026-10-22

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