PAGASA, JICA team up to improve PH weather forecasting
With summer soon coming to a close, people will be more reliant than ever on the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Agency (PAGASA) to give them their daily dose of weather updates.
PAGASA’s forecasters are the best we have, but the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will help them increase their chances at getting tomorrow’s weather right.
PAGASA has entered a three-year development cooperation agreement with JICA to conduct awareness raising activities and seminars, dispatch of experts, and giving the country some much needed equipment to boost the country’s disaster awareness and resiliency.
The project, dubbed JICA-PAGASA on Weather Project or J-POW, looks to give the Philippines the help it needs when it comes to weather forecasting and observation. They have already trained 140 technical personnel in PAGASA on how to calibrate and maintain the instruments provided by JICA.
Another project launched last Wednesday, May 17, looks to boost this project even further. Called the Development of Extreme Weather Monitoring and Information Sharing System, the five-year project looks to limit whatever damage extreme weather may cause to the country by establishing a system to monitor thunderstorm activity.
The system will include radio wave receivers for the lightning detection, observation sites with electric field detector and meteorological sensors, and analysis of cloud images via data from micro-satellites like Diwata.
By combining this system with existing weather forecasting and observation systems, the project looks to establish real-time monitoring of torrential rainfall and nowcast of extreme weather that’s common in the Philippines.
This project is being done through a partnership which includes JICA, the Department of Science and Technology, the Japan Science and Technology Agency, Hokkaido University, and the University of the Philippines.
Source: Manila Bulletin, Philippine News Agency, Philippine Information Agency, Japan Science and Technology Agency
