China's first all-weather TV channel will be launched soon.
Meteorologists believe that the subscription-only channel will
prove invaluable to ordinary citizens.
"Simply by turning on the TV, audiences can get the latest
weather information, and early warnings for disastrous weather such
as typhoons; all updated every 10 minutes," said Xu Xiaofeng,
vice-director of China Meteorological Administration (CMA).
The channel is operated by Huafeng Group of Meteorological
Audio-visual Information under the CMA.
Xu added that the channel, which uses CMA data, will also
provide information about the impact of weather or climate change
on the environment, farming and traffic.
"It will play a key role in reducing or mitigating damage caused
by disasters," he said, adding that, for ordinary people, they can
learn how to protect themselves from bad weather conditions such as
lightning.
Also yesterday, the CMA announced that it would make available
to the public its real-time and historic satellite weather and
climate data collection, free of charge.
"Users can download the data (via the Internet), get it through
a professional IT platform designed for researchers, or receive it
through a special broadcasting system covering Asia-Pacific
countries and regions," Yang Jun, director of CMA's National
Satellite Meteorological Center, said.
"The data we have is a very rare scientific resource," he said,
expressing the hope that it could be shared by more users working
in various sectors such as meteorology, water resources,
agriculture, forestry, the environment and civil aviation.
(China Daily May 19, 2006)