Nowcasting in Vietnam
Mr. Hoang Phuc Lam
Short-range Meteorological Forecasting Division
National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting (NCHMF)
Vietnam Hydro-Meteorological Service (VHMS)
VHMS Organization
MoNRE
VHMS
NCHMF
AMO
International
Cooperation
IT Center
Data Center
…
9 Regional
Centers
54 Provincial
Centers
NCHMF Missions
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Regular monitoring the hydro-meteorological conditions over the
whole country and related areas.
Issuing hydro-meteorological forecasts, warnings and advisories
as assigned for the disaster prevention and preparedness, socioeconomic development, and national defense security.
Carrying out researches and applications of new technologies on
hydro-meteorological forecasting.
Supplying instructions on operational hydro-meteorological
forecasting; and validating the implementation of these instructions
at Regional and Provincial Hydro-meteorological Centers.
Organizing training courses on operational hydro-meteorological
forecasting.
Accomplishing international cooperation projects and programs on
hydro-meteorological forecasting.
Aero-Meteorological Observatory
(AMO) Missions
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Ensure the aero-meteorological observation stations over the whole
country to be ready in all conditions.
Monitoring and collecting data of radar network over the whole
country .
Cooperate with NCHMF for issuing severe weather forecasts,
warnings and advisories for the disaster prevention and
preparedness, socio-economic development, and national
defense security.
Carrying out researches and applications of new technologies on
aero-meteorology.
Organizing training courses on radiosonde and radar data for
operators and forecasters.
Department of Science and Technology
and International Cooperation Missions
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Science and Technology
◦ Orienting HMS’s research to server the following areas:
 Improving forecast quality for disaster prevention and mitigation
 Improving data quality, exploiting efficiently the existing equipments...
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International Cooperation
◦ Implementing and/or orienting HMS’s international cooperation
in improving data observation and forecast system
◦ Strengthen and expand cooperation with other countries and
international organizations in the form of bilateral and
multilateral
◦ Expanded cooperation with international organizations (WMO,
UNESCAP, UNESCO, UNEP, IHP, Typhoon Committee, ASCMG,
etc.) and countries (ASEAN, France, Japan, Italy and Norway,
Russia, China, Australia United States, ...) in the field of HydroMeteorology and Environment
◦ ...
Nowcasting Status
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Radar Network
◦ 07 Radar – 03 conventional and 04 Doppler radars
◦ 01 conventional radar from the Airport
◦ Data quality is not good (noise, topographic effect, old radar…)
Upper-air Observational Network
◦ 5 stations (3 main stations with 2 obs/day and the other 2 is
only 1 obs/day)
Satellite (receivers set up right inside NCHMF)
◦ MTSAT (Japan)
◦ FY2 (China)
NWP
◦ Global models (Japan, US, US Navy, Canada, Germany,
Australia)
◦ Regional models (HRM, WRF...)
Radar Network
(Current and Outlook till 2020)
Conventional (Reflectivity)
Radars (Thompson (French)
radars)
Doppler Radars
(most of them are C-band – EEC)
Current Radars
Proposed Radar sites
7
Upper-Air
Observation Network
Current stations
Proposed stations
Satellite
images
(MTSAT)
Every 30
minutes
Satellite
images
(FY-2)
Every 30
minutes
Hanoi Capital Area – 5 stations from 2008
Synoptic
Data
- 6 hours
- 3 hours
(some)
Some Climatic Statistic
about Tropical Cyclones
Landfall Tropical cyclone
from 1991 to 2010
Yellow color: TD (force 6
Beaufort scale)
Red color: Typhoon
(force 12 and above)
Annual Thunderstorm Days
for North Vietnam
Annual Thunderstorm
Days
for Central Vietnam
Annual Thunderstorm
Days
for South Vietnam
Flood in Nov 2008
Flood in July 2010
Flood in Jul and Aug 2009
Nowcasting for Hanoi Area: Trial phase
- Start date: July, 2010. Reasons for nowcasting:
- Hanoi is capital and administrative and politic center of
Vietnam.
- Evening thunderstorm caused heavy rain and flood for Hanoi
urban area (1st Nov 2008 – historical flood, 12th July 2010,
20th July and 15th Aug 2009...)
- Area: Hanoi capital
- Focus phenomena: Thunderstorm, Heavy rain
- Data:
- Satellite images (MTSAT, FY2): about 15 minutes/image
- 3 reflectivity radars: Việt Trì, Phủ Liễn, Nội Bài
- synoptic observations (every 3 hours or telephone (if required))
- 15 automatic rain-gauges (since Oct 2010)
- Information Transmission to Public:
- NCHMF Website
- Radio channel (Voice of Vietnam – VOV) (live interview)
- No actual supporting tool for forecaster in nowcasting!
First Challenge in 2010
1000 years Anniversary of Hanoi Captital
(01st – 10th October, 2010)
NCHMF and AMO coordinate implementation
Details:
- 15 automatic raingauges and 02 temporary AWSs in Ba Đình and Mỹ
Đình areas
- Test period: 20th Sep – 30th Sep, 2010
- In normal conditions:
- Warning issued every 6 hours
- Information sent directly to Local Organization Committee via
email and fax
- In thunderstorm/ heavy rain conditions:
- Warning issued every 0.5 - 1hours
- Information was published on NCHMF website and VOV radio
channel also
Việt Trì radar’s image 01st Oct 2010
First Idea of Nowcasting Implementation
- Attending “Radar and Nowcasting Workshop” in Cairns, Australia, 1-4 Aug
2007 hosted by BoM and Gematronik
-Working with Mr. Tom Yoshida, retired Meteorologist in charge of Guam
Meteorology Department in 02 radar interpretation training workshop in
Hanoi (2005 and 2008)
- Nowcast experiment in 2010
- 2010 – 2012 Modernization Project of HMS on:
- Observation network
- automatic stations (focus on Hanoi area)
- 4 – 5 doppler radars (new and upgrade)
- Telecommunication system
- Data processing and archive system
- Regional/ city NWP models
- Forecasting Technology
-…
 Hopefully, all data will be available for operational system!
NCHMF need a tool for nowcasting!
 I suggested VHMS to use TITAN and/or TIFS
Related Projects
1. VHMS and FMI project (PROMOSERV) on:
• Maintenance and calibration of automatic weather stations,
• use of radars,
• and career development of personnel
2. VHMS and KMA project on:
• Forecaster’s Analysis System (FAS) for Vietnam
• Typhoon join-Research in which KMA support Vietnam TAPS-2
(Typhoon Analysis and Prediction System)
3. 2010 – 2012 Modernization project of VHMS
4. …
Suggestion for Next Steps
1. FMI did a good review and assess about current status of VHMS nowcasting
system
2. FMI is going to do some training courses of radar using and interpreting in
2011
3. What should be done next?
• More training with real events of Vietnam after modernization project
(when radars, AWS, automatic raingauge and NWP products… are
available)
• Improve nowcasting system in Vietnam from National to Regional and
even Provincial levels by setting up a easy-to-use system.
• Radar data sharing between neighbour countries.
Thank you and Best wishes!