India plans to set up about 1,000 automatic weather stations in the next financial year as part of the Indian Space Research Organisation's expansion programme to improve meteorological services.

"About 1000 automatic weather stations are planned to be deployed during 2008-09," Director of ISRO-Laboratory for Electro-Optics Systems, Dr T K Alex, said.

Also a Very High Resolution Radiometers (VHRR) on board geostationary satellites provide images of the cloud in different spectral bands to provide the data, he said.

"Automatic weather stations (data collection platforms) send weather data through satellites to the ground station of IMD (Indian Meteorological Department) at Delhi, and processed data required for the regional stations and early warning stations are transmitted through satellites," he said.

The major satellite systems in operation for this purpose are INSAT-2E, KALPANA-1 and INSAT-3A, Alex said at a two-day Indo-Australian workshop on remote sensing which began at the headquarters of India's space agency.

"INSAT-3D satellite to be launched next year will carry Advanced VHRR and atmospheric sounder for obtaining the vertical temperature profile of the atmosphere," he said.

"These instruments and a large number of data collection platforms distributed at various parts of the country provide vital data for weather forecasting and cyclone warning."