Toshiba Corporation today announced that it will contribute to better understanding of weather conditions in Taiwan by providing the Taiwan Central Weather Bureau with an S-band weather radar system with an antenna in the world’s largest class, for installation in Chigu district, Tainan city.
The system, to be delivered by Toshiba with High Bound Co., Ltd, a Taiwanese engineering company, under an order received from GECI GROUP (GECI), Spanish system integration and high-technology company, will have a range of approx. 400km, and will support high resolution imaging of precipitation and wind velocity, essential for accurate, pinpoint weather forecasting. Toshiba, High Bound and GECI will deliver the system in 2019.
The western Pacific, long known as Typhoon Alley, is home to some of the world’s strongest tropical cyclones, including the strongest ever recorded, Typhoon Tip. Taiwan is regularly hit by typhoons, such as Nepartak, which made landfall in July 2016, causing extensive damage and claiming three lives.
As a mountainous island where torrential rains can quickly result in landslides and flooding, Taiwan must be constantly ready to deal with the risk of such disasters, and deployment of Toshiba’s S-band radar will make a major contribution to the island’s state of readiness.
The radar system adopts dual polarization and Toshiba’s state-of-the-art microwave transistors to deliver wide area observation, and achieves high level observation capabilities and accuracy. The system also integrates several redundant microwave transistors to maintain operation if some cease operation. Toshiba received the order following GECI’s technical review and price evaluating.
Masaki Haruyama, Vice President of the Defense & Electronic Systems Div. in Toshiba’s Infrastructure Systems & Solutions Company said, “We are very pleased to have received our first order for a weather radar system for Taiwan. We are confident the system will contribute to advancing weather observation capabilities and the provision of timely, reliable forecasts.”
In addition to S-band weather radars for wide-area observations, Toshiba also develops and delivers X-band dual polarization transportable Doppler weather radar systems for more localized monitoring. The company is focused on expanding sales of these systems in countries where severe weather is a source of concern and disaster prevention systems are needed, including India and Southeast Asia region.
