BSS: Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD) has introduced High Impact Weather Assessment Toolkit (HIWAT) aiming to simulate extreme weather hazards and issue more accurate operational forecasts.
The toolkit has been introduced under the SERVIR Hindu Kush Himalaya (SERVIR-HKH) Initiative of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in collaboration with the BMD, NASA SERVIR Science Coordination Office (SCO) and the NASA – Short-term Prediction Research and Transition Center (SPoRT).
The NASA SERVIR Applied Sciences Team developed the system and further customised it for Bangladesh.
The BMD has invested its own resources to install the HIWAT on its high-performance computing cluster to support its operational forecasts.
Basanta Raj Shrestha, director of Strategic Cooperation, ICIMOD; and BMD Deputy Director (Director-In-Charge) Kawsar Parvin jointly launched the toolkit an event held in March.