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Philippines |
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Advanced weather
forecasting system
proposed for DAR, Pagasa |
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Source: Inquirer |
Author: Tessa R. Salazar |
Date: 1999-06-12 |
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PICTURE this: A weather
system that is
agriculture-related. A weather
director giving hourly, round-the-clock report updates to
farmers all over the country. A system that would give farmers
crop assessments and advice before a typhoon hits.
Now picture the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and
Astronomical Services Administration having an accurate
forecasting system--using weather prediction models that are
particularly designed for tropical weather. Picture Pag-asa
supplying the country with a 30-year historical analysis of
typhoon track records in one click.
And then picture a television station providing predesigned
three-dimensional graphics and animations with realistic cloud
simulations that would give an interesting, if not stylish,
weather newscast.
Imagine zooming in from three kilometers above the surface of
the earth, flying right down into greater detail to a big fire in a
forest.
As if in time for the typhoon season, Weather News Inc.
Philippines--a new subsidiary of global information services
company Weather News Inc.--introduced its WeatherVision GS
to broadcasting and government representatives, including
Department of Science and Technology undersecretary Rufino
C. Lirag Jr.
Weather News Inc. Philippines said it already has a
one-kilometer resolution of the Philippines. The company is now
working on getting it into a more detailed 10-meter resolution.
"To give you a much more realistic view of the Philippines, we
need to work on the data," said Hiroyoshi Ishibashi, chair and
CEO of WNI.
The presentation featured a camera focused above the surface
of the earth flying right down to the Emperor's Palace in Tokyo
through the "pinpoint region" method. With this method,
Ishibashi added that WNI could recreate the actual activities of
active volcanos such as Mt. Pinatubo. Pinpoint region was also
used in the Nagano Winter Olympics as a visual directory.
Visitors and olympic enthusiasts were given a bird's eye view
and information on the locations of the winter games.
Ishibashi explained, however, that the image in the screen is not
in real time, but the audience can see the actual topography of a
certain location where an occurrence is taking place. The
occurrence could be placed as part of the animated event and it
would look like the audience is taken to that very spot.
WeatherVision GS has 3D computer graphics technology,
remote sensing and virtual studio navigation technology.
"(Pinpoint region technology) consists of several components,"
Ishibashi explained. "The stage is described in remote sense
fixture. The actors are the clouds, thunderstorms, rains--all
things around it are called actors. And finally there's a
cameraman that shoots all the scenes on the stage."
"The real time (technology) applied to it is the real time weather
as it appears," added John C. Thomson, managing director of
WNI Oceanroutes. "This is what we call a weather actor. It is
applied over the actual topography so one could see real time
weather as it would look like if you were in an aircraft."
WNI Philippines has been eyeing the Department of
Agriculture, Pagasa and GMA-7 to be the first to use the
WeatherVision GS.
Jimmy B. Lorenzo, president and managing director of WNI
Philippines Inc. said that if approved, a system called the
"weather director" will be installed at the DAR central office.
Several systems will also be installed in its regional offices.
"The mode of communication will be through the Internet,"
Lorenzo said. "We feed the paper through the Internet to the
system. It will then be up to the decision-makers what they will
say to the farmers."
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