The National Science and Technology Center for Disaster Reduction (NCDR) yesterday unveiled a mobile app that shows the next hour’s expected rainfall near a user’s location to help authorities and the public to better prepare for potential disasters caused by sudden rain.
The app, called Rainfall Aid (落雨小幫手), shows the amount of rainfall recorded in the 20 minutes prior to an inquiry and the amount expected over the next 60 minutes for a 10km radius of the user’s location, NCDR Director Hongey Chen (陳宏宇) told a news conference in New Taipei City.
The GPS-enabled app warns users 30 minutes before expected rain at their location so that people can, for example, decide when to collect their washed laundry drying outside, Chen said.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Science and Technology
Local governments can use the app to plan disease prevention measures, especially for remote and mountainous areas, he added.
The app incorporates data gathered by the Central Weather Bureau’s meteorological radars and rainfall measuring stations nationwide; Taiwan Volcano Observatory data on activity in the Datun Volcano Group (大屯火山群); and information transmitted by the Formosat-7/COSMIC2 satellite constellation, he said.
The satellite constellation, launched in June last year, can collect 4,000 data sets per day between latitudes 50 degrees north and south, Chen said.
The data, which were made available for public use in March, have improved the precision of domestic weather forecasts by about 10 percent, he said.
The rainfall forecast techniques used by the app were developed by atmospheric scientists at National Central University and National Taiwan University who have conducted projects funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology, NCDR Meteorology Division Head Yu Yi-chiang (于宜強) said.
The NCDR uses the National Center for High-performance Computing’s supercomputer Taiwania 1 to process numerical model data for the app, he added.
The app updates information every 10 minutes, he added.
It covers all of the nation, except the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) and Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島), Yu said.
While the app requires a user’s location to display warning messages, it does not record it, he said.
POLAM KOPITIAM CASE: Of the two people still in hospital, one has undergone a liver transplant and is improving, while the other is being evaluated for a liver transplant A fourth person has died from bongkrek acid poisoning linked to the Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday, as two other people remain seriously ill in hospital. The first death was reported on March 24. The man had been 39 years old and had eaten at the restaurant on March 22. As more cases of suspected food poisoning involving people who had eaten at the restaurant were reported by hospitals on March 26, the ministry and the Taipei Department of Health launched an investigation. The Food and
The long-awaited Taichung aquarium is expected to open next year after more than a decade of development. The building in Cingshui District (清水) is to feature a large ocean aquarium on the first floor, coral display area on the second floor, a jellyfish tank and Dajia River (大甲溪) basin display on the third, a river estuary display and restaurant on the fourth, and a cafe and garden on the fifth. As it is near Wuci Fishing Port (梧棲漁港), many are expecting the opening of the aquarium to bring more tourism to the harbor. Speaking at the city council on Monday, Taichung City Councilor
A fourth person has died in a food poisoning outbreak linked to the Xinyi (信義) branch of Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in Taipei, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said on Monday. It was the second fatality in three days, after another was announced on Saturday. The 40-year-old woman experienced multiple organ failure in the early hours on Monday, and the family decided not to undergo emergency resuscitation, Wang said. She initially showed signs of improvement after seeking medical treatment for nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, but her condition worsened due to an infection, he said. Two others who
Taiwanese should be mindful when visiting China, as Beijing in July is likely to tighten the implementation of policies on national security following the introduction of two regulations, a researcher said on Saturday. China on Friday unveiled the regulations governing the law enforcement and judicial activities of national security agencies. They would help crack down on “illegal” and “criminal” activities that Beijing considers to be endangering national security, according to reports by China’s state media. The definition of what constitutes a national security threat in China is vague, Taiwan Thinktank researcher Wu Se-chih (吳瑟致) said. The two procedural regulations are to provide Chinese