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Conference brings together experts in weather research

Although atmospheric research has yet to help predict the weather with high accuracy, data and experience are increasing and scientists around the world are working toward that goal, the National Space Program Office (NSPO) said yesterday.

NSPO Director-General Miau Jiun-jih (苗君易) made the comment yesterday at the opening event of a three-day conference attended by some 300 international experts in the field. The conference includes the 4th biannual Asian Space Conference and the 3rd annual FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC workshop.

The FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC — a constellation of six micro-satellites — was launched by a Taiwan-US consortium in 2005.

The satellites are “immensely useful for weather forecasting and atmospheric research ... [which is important because] accurate weather forecasts would have a great impact in multiple disciplines,” such as agriculture and climatology, Miau said.

Miau said the equipment had already collected “almost 1.31 million units of data and has 842 subscribers at research institutions in 47 countries.”

“In addition, it has been incorporated into the weather forecast systems of many countries in Europe, Asia and the US,” Miau said.

The FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC workshop — “COSMIC” being short for Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate — will offer subscribers from around the world a chance to discuss uses for data collected by the equipment, Miau said.

“In the past two years, our meetings were more instructional, as some US researchers have more experience with satellites of this type ... However, we are confident that this year more researchers will be able to share data application methods with the group,” he said.

Researchers will also discuss how the data can be combined with non-satellite systems, such as radar, to provide the most comprehensive weather forecasts, Miau said.

“Increasing the accuracy of typhoon forecasts, for example, would require accumulating a lot more experience and analyzing past data [from previous storms],” he said.

In related news, the National Science Council yesterday unveiled the preliminary findings of its southwest front tracing project, which uses radar and dropsondes to better understand the interaction between seasonal winds and landscape, as well as how that interaction impacts Taiwan’s weather.

Project leader Ben Jou (周仲島) said that planes have been releasing dropsondes — weather observation instruments with parachutes — to the southwest of Taiwan, helping researchers put together a more detailed picture of the southwest front, which is responsible for heavy rain in the south in May and June.

More research will be needed, however, for the project to help improve weather forecasting, he said.
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