News

Weather forecasters undergo training

May 22, 2018 6:18 pm

The Fiji Meteorological Service (FMS) in collaboration with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has undertaken a Regional Training on “Analysis of Himawari Data.

The training is aimed to allow the forecasters of the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in the South Pacific to maximize the benefit of Himawari-8, the Japanese meteorological satellite, for monitoring and forecasting the severe weather in the region such as tropical cyclones and heavy rains.

Himawari-8 is equipped with the state-of-the-art imagers capable of multi-band, high-resolution and high-frequency observation.

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A total of 10 forecasters at National Meteorological Services (NMSs) of Cook Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Fiji have gathered in Nadi to acquire the advanced knowledge and skills to utilize the data from Himawari-8.

They will also carry out case studies on Tropical Cyclones Gita, Hola, Josie and Keni with SATAID during the training to develop necessary skills in analysing and interpreting information.