The Central Weather Administration (CWA) and the Taiwan Space Agency (TASA) on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) at the CWA to enhance meteorological observation and space weather forecasts.
Signed by CWA Administrator Cheng Chia-ping (程家平) and TASA Director-General Wu Jong-shinn (吳宗信), the MOU covers areas such as collaboration on meteorological and space monitoring, enhancement of techniques and data exchange.
The collaboration would involve using data collected by the Formosat-7 and Triton satellites for space weather and maritime meteorological observations, the CWA said.
Photo: Tsai Yun-jung, Taipei Times
The agencies aim to enhance the accuracy of weather forecasts, benefiting not only space missions, but also addressing the needs of daily life, disaster prevention and relief efforts, it said.
Cheng at the signing ceremony said that the CWA in 2002 started working with TASA on the Formosat-3 satellite, and the two sides also collaborated to establish the Taiwan Analysis Center for COSMIC in 2005.
The collaboration work under the MOU includes 24-hour satellite data reception, processing and transmission, involving not only atmospheric temperature, humidity and pressure information, but also data for space weather forecasting, Wu said.
Information from space weather forecasting is crucial for satellite operations, aircraft communication safety and positioning accuracy, TASA said.
TASA information shows that Formosat-7 produces about 5,500 atmospheric and 4,000 ionosphere data points daily, and CWA has helped TASA process about 30 million data points since Formosat-3 went online.
Cheng said Formosat-7 mainly provides atmospheric information such as temperature, humidity and pressure.
Triton’s primary function is to collect sea surface wind data, and it can predict the path of typhoons, Cheng added.
Furthermore, according to simulation comparison analysis, data collected by Formosat-7 can improve the accuracy of weather forecasts by 6 to 10 percent, as well as reduce errors in forecasting the path of a typhoon for more than 72 hours by an average of 5 percent.
Cheng added that Formosat-7’s observation mission specifically targets tropical regions, roughly within the latitudes of 45° north and south.
Triton has operated well since its launch on Oct. 9 last year and the first stage review of data collected by it has been completed, Wu said.
Triton data is expected to be released next month, he added.
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