Japan to share weather tech to improve forecasts

Predicting devastation: The Pigcale coastal village in the Philippines after it was battered by Typhoon Melor in December. The JMA ‘HimawariCast system’ hopes to provide better and affordable forecasting for developing nations. — Reuters

Tokyo: The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) is helping developing countries by sharing technology for weather forecasts and providing them with weather observation data.

Since autumn last year, the JMA has installed in nine countries – mainly in Asia – devices for a system that enables those countries to obtain observation data from Himawari-8, Japan’s new weather observation satellite. The JMA is also training weather forecasters from foreign countries.

Abnormal weather phenomena have occurred in many places across the globe, and “we hope our cooperation will minimise damage from typhoons and cyclones”, a JMA official said.

In July last year, the JMA began operating Himawari-8, which contains some of the most advanced technology in the world.

It boasts double the resolution of Himawari-7 in its graphic data, and the intervals at which it photographs East Asia and the Western Pacific Ocean, the areas it covers, was drastically shortened to 10 mi­­nutes from 60 minutes.

If the areas to be observed are limited to Japan, its nearby surroundings and the areas where typhoons originate, the satellite can photograph this range every two-and-a-half minutes.

It can therefore observe the movement of cumulonimbus clouds, which can cause torrential rain, more precisely than its predecessor.

A satellite is essential to observe a typhoon moving over the ocean. Data from Himawari-8 are provi­ded free to countries in Asia and Oceania, which do not possess their own satellites for this purpose.

The data support the countries’ weather observation and forecast activities. However, a new problem occurred because Hamawari-8 can process about 50 times the volume of data that Himawari-7 could.

Industrialised countries such as Australia can obtain the data via cloud services on the Internet, but it became more difficult for other countries, as their information communication facilities are poor, making Internet access unstable.

The JMA therefore developed the “HimawariCast system”, which comprises low-priced dish antennas, receivers and other devices. Meteorological authorities can use the system to easily and quickly obtain downsized data from the satellite via other satellites.

In cooperation with the World Meteorological Organisation, which helps countries all over the world to improve their weather forecast capabilities, the JMA has installed the system’s devices in nine countries, such as Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia, this fiscal year. — The Japan News/Asia News Net­work