The Director-General of Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau (CWB) says that exchanging meteorological data with China’s weather agency is at the core of a cross-strait agreement that took effect Wednesday. CWB Director-General Shin Tzay-Chyn spoke publically about the agreement on Thursday.
Taiwan signed two cooperative agreements on sharing data with China last February. One concerns sharing meteorological data to improve the accuracy of weather forecasts. The CWB has established a working group and is set to hold its first meeting with its Chinese counterpart in two to three months.
CWB Director-General Shin Tzay-Chyn discussed the type of data the two weather bureaus hope to share.
"We hope to get data from the Mainland’s weather observations and data from the Mainland’s radar satellites, said Shin.
"At the moment, for example, we are only able to observe as cloud systems from southern China move gradually eastward and affect Taiwan. In the future, we may be able to get information on the convection or the strength of the cloud system as well. When the system moves to Taiwan, we will be able to tell the public how much rain will fall more accurately."
Shin said more discussions are needed on exchanging information about ocean currents and weather on the Taiwan Strait.