CWB in FSL Forum

CWB in FSL in Review

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In late 1989 and early 1990 a series of technical discussions and exchanges of visits were held between the Forecast Systems Laboratory (FSL) of the Environmental Research Laboratories (ERL), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) of Taiwan. The Joint Forecast System Project (JFPS) between CWB and FSL became official after formal cooperative agreement was approved in June 1990. The inital phase (CWB called Phase II) of FSL/CWB project was completed in December of 1994. During this phase, CWB and FSL jointly developed a PC-based forecast workstation. CWB combined this forecast workstation with their central facility which includes data sources, communication, preprocessing, and product generation, and establish a system, called the Weather Information and Nowcasting System (WINS). The WINS becomes CWB's operational forecast system at the Forecast Center. This system also provided data and products to outside users including two universities, EPA, and hydrology bureau in Taiwan. CWB also developed its own applications, for example the GOES-9 satellite navigation. CWB Phase IV project is from 2001 to 2009.

The primary objectives of the FSL-CWB cooperation are to:

1. Further achieve the transfer to CWB of the advanced forecast systems science and technology developed by FSL to modernize United States National Weather Services.
2. Assure that CWB establishes a mature and independent capability to utilize and expand upon this science and technology to improve its quality of weather services in Taiwan.
3. Provide scientific cooperation and technical assistance to many CWB Phase III modernization activities:
   • provide an integrated forecast environment and forecast products using all data sources.
   • provide forecast guidance by evaluating the relationship between forecast products and local weather elements.
   • provide radar networking capability to integrate all the data and products from Doppler radars and conventional radars in Taiwan.
   • improve data assimilation techniques for CWB numerical weather prediction models by using satellite and other data.
   • provide improved access and quality of service to data users through use of public telecommunication services.
   • improve integrated networking capability for communication and resources sharing with the new CWB building.