How is Delhi Airport ensuring smooth travel during bad weather? 

Dozens of flights at Delhi airport are delayed or diverted during the winter season due to dense fog, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded. It might change soon with the launch of SKYCAST—an advanced, integrated aviation weather intelligence and nowcasting facility—at Indira Gandhi International Airport.

SKYCAST is a next-generation aviation meteorological platform that integrates advanced remote sensing technologies, atmospheric profiling systems, and intelligent nowcasting tools to continuously track rapidly evolving weather conditions that may impact flight operations.

Globally, similar advanced atmospheric profiling and aviation weather intelligence systems are deployed at leading airports and aerospace facilities, including Hong Kong International Airport, Heathrow Airport, John F. Kennedy International Airport, and Singapore Changi Airport, as well as at NASA and Cape Canaveral launch facilities for aviation and launch weather monitoring.

It is expected to significantly strengthen aviation safety during take-off and landing, runway and air traffic flow management, operational preparedness during fog and severe weather, reduction in weather-related delays and diversions and real-time pilot situational awareness.

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How does the system work?

SKYCAST can assess atmospheric conditions from the surface up to nearly 10 km altitude for thermodynamic profiling and several kilometres for wind observations. This significantly enhances the ability of meteorologists and aviation stakeholders to track and respond to rapidly changing weather systems accurately.

The facility enables continuous, real-time monitoring of critical atmospheric parameters, including temperature and humidity profiles, water vapour density, cloud liquid water content, wind speed and direction, vertical wind structures, and near-surface high-resolution wind observations.

Using advanced algorithms and integrated atmospheric analysis, the system generates a wide range of derived aviation meteorological parameters such as wind shear magnitude and depth, headwind, tailwind and crosswind components, low-level jet characteristics, atmospheric stability indicators, temperature inversion analysis, fog formation indicators, boundary layer dynamics, icing potential, and storm and precipitation characteristics.

What are its features?

A key feature of SKYCAST is its automated nowcasting and hazard-alerting capabilities. The system detects and provides real-time alerts for critical aviation hazards, including wind shear, fog, inversions, low-level jets, icing, and turbulence.

It also supports outputs for the Integrated Wind Shear Alerting System (IWAS), convective initiation forecasts, fog evolution trends, and short-term operational nowcasts updated every five minutes.

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The platform is supported by the VizAir software suite, which offers a comprehensive decision-support interface with advanced visualisation and analytics tools. It provides operational weather intelligence to key stakeholders, including meteorologists, air traffic controllers, and pilots.

The system is aligned with ICAO and FAA standards and enables runway-specific wind shear alerting tailored to operational requirements.

“It is an important step forward in making Delhi Airport even safer and more resilient for everyone who travels through it. Weather can change very quickly, and having access to accurate, real-time information makes a real difference on the ground and in the air. This system will help our teams, pilots, and air traffic controllers make quicker, more informed decisions, ultimately ensuring smoother and safer journeys for passengers,” said Videh Kumar Jaipuriar, CEO-DIAL.

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