To cut lightning toll, govt eyes sat-based system

NEW DELHI: To better the country’s lightning monitoring system in order to check hundreds of casualties annually, the ministry of earth sciences is in talks with Isro for installing a lightning detector on its upcoming geo satellites.
Speaking during a webinar ‘Thunderstorms and Lightning’ on Tuesday, MoES secretary M Rajeevan said, “Like the US and European countries, we want to have a lightning detector in geo satellites. For that, talks have been going on with Isro and the agency has agreed in principle”.
Talking to TOI, Isro chairman K Sivan said, “We had already installed a software in two satellites INSAT-3D and INSAT-3DR to assess the lightning potential area on an experimental basis. It’s not a detection system but it’s a software, which is used to assess such thunderstorm events. We are also working on the MoEF’s request and plan to install a lightning detector in an INSAT-4 series satellite. But that is still in a preliminary stage.”