Equipping Japan’s satellites to predict extreme weather

Tsunamis, flooding, cyclones and the devastation that follows in their wake are an increasingly common phenomenon across the Asia-Pacific region.

According to the World Meteorological Organization¹, Asia remained the world’s most disaster-hit region² from weather, climate and water-related hazards in 2023, the year for which the most-up-to-date figures are available. A total of 79 disasters associated with hydro-meteorological hazard events were reported in Asia in ’23 – more than 80 percent related to flooding and storms – resulting in more than 2000 deaths and nine million people directly affected.

In purely financial terms, the cost of catastrophic weather events can also be massive: between 2013-2023, Japan’s bill for climate-related damage totalled $90.8 billion³, behind only the United States, China and India – all three of which have far greater land masses and populations.

Tracking weather patterns and helping to predict extreme meteorological events, in the hope of mitigating their impact, has become an increasingly important role for the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), which relies on satellite technology to maximise the accuracy of its forecasts.

ABB’s involvement is to develop and build a high-resolution infrared interferometer system, which will power L3Harris’ next-generation atmospheric sounder.

The interferometric system onboard Himawari-10, being built by Mitsubishi Electric, will map in 3D the temperature and humidity over the Asia-Pacific region over a 10-year period.

Information more than 100 times richer

It's anticipated that the information gained by fitting Himawari-10 with the latest technology will be more than 100 times richer than legacy sensors currently available in geostationary orbit over Asia. The satellite will be positioned  at an altitude of 36,000km, helping JMA to improve predictions of the trajectory and intensity of extreme weather events, as well as extend its long-term forecast.

It will be able to do this thanks in part to the equipment’s ability to capture images of the same location on Earth every 30 minutes, thus providing rapid updates of evolving weather conditions.

Atmospheric sounders are high-end optical instruments able to probe the physical properties of air mass – such as temperature, humidity and movement.

Approaching 50 years of satellite weather research in Japan  

Japan’s Himawari (sunflower) satellite programme began in 1977, operated by JMA to support weather tracking and meteorological research across Asia. Himawari-10 will be the latest in the line and the first to fly a hyperspectral IR sounder, thanks to ABB’s technology.

ABB’s partnerships with Japan’s satellite program

ABB analysis technology is also supporting Japan’s GOSAT program, for which the first two satellites were launched in 2009 and 2018.

Unlike Himawari-10, the GOSATs orbit the earth – 15 times a day at a much closer height of 613km. Their mission is to monitor global distribution of greenhouse gas emissions on earth, using an ABB interferometer similar to the one used on Himawari to help make more than 100,000 precise measurements of carbon dioxide, methane, ozone, water vapor, carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere over a 6-day period.

Its data is transferred to Japan’s National Institute for Environmental Study (NIES), which then creates maps showing GHG concentration around the planet

One notable satellite observation is that plant growth during spring removes most of the GHGs which have accumulated over the winter. The injection of GHGs from densely industrialized areas can also be seen from orbit.

Sources:
1. World Meteorological Organisation
2. State of the Climate in Asia in 2023
3. The Japan Times

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