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.
Three passengers and the assailant were reportedly injured in a knife attack on the Taichung MRT on Tuesday. The Rapid Transit Brigade of the Taichung Police Department is still investigating the incident, with no motive immediately apparent. Taichung Police Commissioner Lee Wen-chang (李文章) said that at least four people were injured in the attack, and the suspect has been taken into custody. The incident occurred at about 11:15am on a train car near Taichung City Hall Station. Witnesses reported seeing a man attacking others with a knife, while other passengers tried to grab his hair or fend him off with umbrellas. Three people were reportedly
Schools in Keelung and four New Taipei City districts are to be closed to the public until Wednesday, as police continue searching for an escaped patient convicted of attempted murder. The New Taipei City Government on Tuesday decided to close campuses in Wanli (萬里), Sijhih (汐止), Pingsi (平溪) and Rueifang (瑞芳) districts to outsiders, as the patient was last spotted taking a bus toward Rueifang from Keelung. Police patrols have been increased near schools, the city government said, advising students to travel in groups and not linger near campus. The Keelung City Government earlier announced that campuses and local representative offices in the
DEFENDING DEMOCRACY: Groups have organized protests at the Chiayi Cultural Park in Chiayi City, the National Museum of Taiwan Literature in Tainan and Kaohsiung Central Park Activist groups and civil society organizations called for nationwide demonstrations today to demand transparency in the legislative process, as legislators are scheduled to resume voting on a set of controversial legislative reforms. Today’s planned activities led by Taiwan Citizen Front are to be a continuation of Tuesday’s protests against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) lawmakers attempts to pass bills without undergoing what critics say is the proper review process. In a news release yesterday, Taiwan Citizen Front, the Economic Democracy Union and other groups urged people to protest on the streets bordering the Legislative Yuan in Taipei to
Taipei police on Saturday arrested 24 female Thai tourists on suspicion of working as hostesses and engaging in illegal activities at an underground bar in Zhongshan District (中山), the distict’s police precinct said in a statement yesterday. The police also arrested five other people involved in the operation, including the 29-year-old bar owner surnamed Chiang (蔣), and 17 customers, the statement said. The 24 Thai women were fined an undisclosed amount in accordance with the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法) by the police and transferred to a National Immigration Agency (NIA) special brigade in Taipei for repatriation to Thailand. The cases of