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.