Satellite Meteorology, Second Edition

Satellite Meteorology is the youngest and fastest growing branch of the science of meteorology and the present book traces its fascinating history, describes the current state of art, and envisions its potential and possibilities. The last decade has witnessed a significant improvement in the accuracy of short and medium range weather forecasting the world over, particularly in the tropics. Numerical weather prediction models seem to be taking over from synoptic meteorologists and may even be doing better. With the support of high power computers, numerical models have indeed become sophisticated and highly capable. However, it is undeniable that their recent success has been largely due to the real time assimilation of satellite data and products. Against the backdrop of these developments, revision of Satellite Meteorology had become overdue. The second edition retains the basic structure and style of previous edition but the updated content reflects more realistically the state of art in this ever-evolving field of science and technology. It incorporates the most recent factual and technical information, research results and references to the latest publications.

R. R. Kelkar was born on 19 December 1943 at Mumbai, and had his higher education at the University of Pune. He received his Ph. D. degree in 1971 for his thesis entitled "Role of Radiation in Atmospheric Circulation". His first research contribution to the Indian Journal of Meteorology and Geophysics in 1969 was given the best paper award by the journal. He has since published over 50 research papers in various fields. He is also the recipient of the J. Das Gupta Award of the Indian Meteorological Society. He joined the India Meteorological Department in 1965 and retired in 2003 as the Director General of Meteorology. He served as ISRO Space Chair Professor at the University of Pune from 2004 to 2008. He is the Chairman of the Research Advisory Committee of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune and a member of its Governing Council. Earlier, Professor Kelkar was the President of the Indian Meteorological Society from 1997 to 1999. He served as the Permanent Representative of India with the World Meteorological Organization, Geneva from 1999 to 2003 and was an elected Member of the WMO Executive Council.