The People’s Daily: After 70 years of development, the overall level of modernization of the meteorological cause in new China has entered the world’s advanced level

This year is the 70th anniversary of the meteorological cause of new China, as well as the 50th anniversary of the development of Fengyun meteorological satellite. Along with the development of new China, the meteorological cause has thrived and Fengyun satellite has achieved leapfrog development. Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology is the cradle of China’s meteorological satellite. Since 1969 when Prime Minister Zhou Enlai said we needed to solve the problem of backwardness and develop our own meteorological satellite, it has developed and launched 17 high and low orbit satellites of two generations and four types, and realized a great leap in the development of meteorological satellite from backwardness to simultaneous development and finally to leading development, which made an important contribution to the development of national economies and building of China to the world meteorological center and power. Recently, the People’s Daily published an article named Measuring Constant Changes of Winds, Serving the State Governance and People’s Welfares in commemorating the 70th anniversary of the meteorological cause in new China.

 

The People’s Daily published an article in commemorating the 70th anniversary of the meteorological cause in new China in its first issue.

At this moment, in the vast space, 7 Fengyun meteorological satellites are overlooking the earth and sending back clear satellite cloud photographs for the countries of the world.

At this moment, on the top of high mountains, in the desert and on the islets, weather observers are recording the weather changes through equipment and instruments.

At this moment, in the state, provincial, municipal, and county meteorological stations, weather forecasters are paying close attention to the change of weather 24 hours a day...

The meteorological cause of new China developed from a foundation of utter destitution 70 years ago. The meteorologists forged ahead with tenacity and resolve. The meteorological cause has always taking promoting the national development and people’s health as the fundamental task, and has made active contributions to economic development, social progress, people’s life, and industrial production.

Entering the new era ——

China has established the comprehensive meteorological observation system which is largest in the world with the most comprehensive coverage.

It has set up a refined and well-connected weather forecast system, which greatly improves the accuracy of weather forecast and climatic prediction.

The global monitoring, forecast and service ability has been steadily enhanced.

The weather service system which is oriented towards decision making, the people’s livelihood and production is gradually improved.

The overall level of modernization of the meteorological industry in new China has entered the world’s advanced level.

The comprehensive meteorological observation system which is largest in the world with the most comprehensive coverage has been established.

Naqu Anduo Weather Station in Tibet is the manned weather station with the highest sea level elevation in the world. There is a deep wall in the yard which is very attractive. It has a distinctive name-”Jinshui Well”.

This potable water well was dug by the founder of Anduo station, Chen Jinshui, together with his staff and workers. It cost them more than one month. In 1965, Chen Jinshui, together with his colleagues, came to Anduo which has a sea level elevation of 4800m and a mean annual temperature of about minus 3℃ with tents and pickaxes. They leveled the ground with pickax and set up the standard meteorological park, and finally established Anduo Weather Station. From then on, wind speed, wind direction, humidity, atmosphere pressure and other meteorological elements are sent to Lhasa and Beijing day in and day out, which fills a gap in the world meteorology history.

China is in a climate zone with East Asian monsoon. With a vast territory, it has complicated and changeful weather and climate, and is one of the countries in the world with frequent meteorological disasters. The meteorological cause which observes and forecasts the weather and climate changes is an important fundamental and sci-tech cause which is closely connected with all sectors and hundreds of millions of people. In 1953, the worst cold wave in few decades damaged a large area of farmlands and crops. Comrade Mao Zedong issued a directive that the meteorological department should usually inform the people of the weather. The CPC Central Committee and the State Council attached high priority to the meteorological cause. Under its decisions and plans, the meteorological cause in new China has gradually developed.

At the beginning of founding of new China, China had not enough meteorological sounding outlets. With 70 years of efforts, at present, China has established 10747 country-level surface weather observation stations and about 60,000 regional automatic meteorological observation stations. We also have 216 new generations of Doppler weather radars which form a rigid meteorological disaster monitoring network.

Now, we can usually see the satellite cloud photograph in weather forecast. With more than 20 years of development from zero, on September 7, 1988, the first meteorological satellite, Fengyun 1A, developed by China was successfully launched in Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. Since then, we have completely ended the history to rely on the weather satellite data of foreign countries.

China has successfully launched 17 Fengyun meteorological satellites. Now we have 7 meteorological satellites running in orbit. China has become one of the few countries in the world with meteorological satellites providing both polar orbit and stationary satellite services at the same time. Yang Jun, Director of National Satellite Meteorological Center, said proudly: “After Fengyun 3A was successfully launched, the meteorological department of many developed countries contacted with us and hoped to share the materials.”

Now, the precious materials sent back by China’s meteorological satellites are shared with more than 100 countries and regions in the world, and are playing an important role in the monitoring of typhoon, rainstorm, sandstorm and forest and grassland fire.

The “ocean-ground-air-space” four-in-one basic meteorological monitoring station network, the specialized meteorological networks covering ecology, environment, agriculture, ocean, traffic, and tourism, various observation methods like satellite surveillance, sounding and observation, island weather station, vessel automatic station… the largest and most comprehensive meteorological observation system in the world can seize the changes of weather and climate all the time.

The meteorological prediction and forecast system is increasingly mature and the level is constantly improved.

“From the night of 28 to the daytime of 30, the snowfall will affect the north area of China from the west to the east...” On November 28, the forecast issued by the National Meteorological Center of China gives people full expectations of the snow. Later, the snowfall covering the largest region in this winter came as expected.

Compared with the forecast, this shows that the forecasters have delivered a good report. However, without a rest, they soon were engaged in another try.

In these 70 years, taking the modernization of the meteorological cause as a key task, China has improved the accuracy of forecast and prediction, upgraded the forecast and prediction technology, and launched various new products. In the past, we drew the weather map manually; now, with numerical prediction and comprehensive utilization of various means, we have realized the forecast and early warning through human-computer interaction. From the traditional qualitative analysis method, now we have realized automatic, objective and quantitative forecast and analysis.

“Now, China has established a delicate and flawless modern meteorological prediction and forecast system. It can release the forecast and prediction accurate to minute, hour, month, quarter, and year.” said Wang Jianjie, Director of National Meteorological Center.

As the forecast and prediction system has become increasingly mature and sound, the forecasters have become more and more confident, and their job performance is better and better:

The forecast accuracy of sunny and rainy days, maximum air temperature and minimum air temperature in 24 hours can reach 86.7%, 80.4% and 84.5% respectively. The accuracy rate of rainstorm warning is improved to 88%. The warning of severe convection weather can be given 38 minutes in advance.

In recent years, the 24-hour error of typhoon track forecast has been stabilized at about 70 km. The forecast accuracy in all time frames has comprehensively exceeded that of the USA and Japan, and the typhoon track forecast in the northwest Pacific is leading in the world.

The fog-smog process forecast accuracy is above 80%. The earliness of grid forecast of fog-smog is prolonged to 5 days...

The forecast and warning information shall not only be reported precisely, but also be given and used appropriately. In these 70 years, China is constantly improving the forecast and warning information release system. In order to break through the bottleneck of the “last 1km” in information dissemination, in recent years, relevant innovation mechanism like the “Yongchuan Model” in Chongqing and “Three Responses” in Guizhou is developing constantly. The “green channel” of forecast and warning information has been opened up successively. In May 2015, national emergencies early warning information release center was formally established. The country, province, municipal and county four-in-one warning information release platform with “authoritative release in the earliest time” has gradually been set up.

In 2018, the percentage of coverage of early warning information to the public in China was further improved. The weather warning information could be sent to 86.4% people within 10 minutes. The early warning information about meteorological disasters could be released through various ways, such as broadcast, TV, website, short message, Weibo, WeChat, client side, and electronic display, and the time efficiency of release was shortened to 5 to 8 minutes. The public weather service satisfaction reached 90.8 points, which was the highest among the previous years.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, along with the application of big data and AI technology, “smart weather” has been fast developing, becoming an important symbol of China’s modern meteorological business system, service system and scientific & technological innovation system. In 2017, China Meteorological Administration was recognized as the world meteorological center by World Meteorological Organization, becoming one of the nine meteorological enters in the world. This marks that China’s overall modernization level of meteorology has entered the world’s advanced level.

After China Meteorological Administration was formally recognized as the world meteorological center, the global numerical weather prediction system GRAPES developed by China began to provide global weather forecast serviceand provide support to the Belt and Road initiative. In 2018, there was a serious drought in Afghanistan. In response to the need of Afghanistan, World Meteorological Center (Beijing) opened a special service channel for Afghanistan on the website and developed relevant monitoring and forecast products.

Provide high quality services to economic and social development and people’s life and health.

“If there is no scientific basis provided by the meteorological department, the development of two-line hybrid paddy rice may be postponed for years.” said Academician Yuan Longping, the Father of Hybrid Rice. “Meteorology is closely related to the development of two-line hybrid rice. Hunan Meteorological Bureau analyzed the safest time of seeding and tasseling based on the weather materials of the whole province. This is very critical. I watch the weather forecast every day. Now, the forecast is becoming more and more precise.”

The problem concerning “agriculture, rural areas and farmers” is the number one priority in the work of the Party. No.1 central document focusing on “agriculture, rural areas and farmers” has put forward a clear requirement that meteorology should serve the agriculture for 15 continuous years. The meteorological department is placing all efforts to build the agricultural weather service system and meteorological disaster defense system in rural areas. The modern meteorology serving agriculture system has been increasingly improved.

In Chongqing, the meteorological department is constantly improving Zhitian Smart Weather Service System and Yutian Smart Disaster Prevention System, and has gradually established the urban and rural integrated meteorological disaster prevention, reduction and relief system. In Shaanxi, Red Apple Weather Service Team is busy working in farms to provide services to the fruit growers in the garden. In Anhui, the philosophy, clue and measure of meteorology serving the agriculture are continuously innovated. The Farmer-benefiting Meteorology APP, Anhui Agrometeorological Platform and some other “internet +” products are enjoying great popularity. In Guangxi, a sugar cane weather service center is specially established to provide special services like the forecast of cane sugar output in major sugar cane producers in the whole world...

China Meteorological Administration cooperates with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs to provide one-stop services and provide weather information to each village and household. About 1 million new type of agricultural business entities in the whole country have benefited from this. In order to strengthen the monitoring and forecast of meteorological disasters in rural areas, the regional automatic weather station has covered about 99.6% villages and towns, and a disastrous weather forecast and warning system for villages and towns has been established.

Along with the economic and social development, different departments and sectors are having more and more demands for weather service. The meteorological department is providing active services to guarantee the state important strategies. Weather service has been extended to dozens of fields including traffic, water conservancy, tourism, energy, and ecological environment, integrated into several hundreds of sectors and covered hundreds of millions of people.

——Play the role as an “information tree” in disaster prevention, reduction and relief.

Precise judgment of the weather change trend and its impact in causing disasters can make good preparations for “prevention before happening, resistance in the earliest time, and saving in key links”. As the comprehensive disaster prevention and reduction system led by the Party Committee, dominated by the government, and assisted by departments with social participation has been established and improved, in recent years, the mortality of people caused by meteorology and its derivative disasters in recent years in China has been sharply decreased. The proportion of economic loss caused by meteorological disasters in GDP has reduced from 3%-6% in the 1980s to 0.4%-1% in the recent five years.

—Provide assistance to the state ecological progress in all aspects.

The meteorological department takes an active part in air pollution control, strengthens the science and technology support to combat climate changes, and vigorously restores the ecologic renovation type weather modification business. It carries out the monitoring and evaluation, capacity building and performance testing of cloud and water resources in the origin of three rivers, Qilian Mountain, Danjiangkou, and Baiyangdian. The meteorological department has finished the fine evaluation of 1km resolution of wind energy and 10km resolution of solar energy in the whole country, becoming a good assistant to the building and operation of wind farms and solar power stations.

—Provide meteorological guarantee to important activities.

On October 1 this year, the convention in commemorating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China was held in Beijing. The grand military parade and civilian procession were held at Tiananmen Square. At the beginning of the year, China Meteorological Administration set up the meteorological guarantee service team for the celebration activity. Acting in line with the overall plan of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, all staff and workers in the department placed their full efforts and realized close monitoring and precise forecast with a highly responsible and excellence-pursuing attitude, and successfully finished this important task. Beijing Olympic Games, World Expo Shanghai, and the international cooperation summit forum for the Belt and Road Initiative...the success of almost all important activities can’t get away from the efforts and dedication of meteorologists.

“Keep alerted at all seasons, don’t let go each weather process.” In the new journey towards the building of a world meteorological power, China’s meteorological cause will take on new looks and make new contributions.

Source: The People’s Daily, Official WeChat Account of China Meteorological Administration, Official WeChat Account of Fengyun (Wind and Cloud) satellite

 

Long press and identify the QR Code to follow the official WeChat account of Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology.