A senior Meteorological Engineer for the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is on the island this week working alongside the Niue Met Service.
Hiroyuki Ichijo’s is here to survey the installation of the Himawari Cast system that will assist Niue Met Service greatly with high resolution satellite imagery for weather forecasting for severe weather and tropical cyclones.
He has 34 years of experience working in Japan’s Meteorological Department, his work now involves surveying the installation of the Himawari Cast system in the Pacific, Asia and African region.
The Himawari Cast system is a data reception system that receives and processes images from the Himawari-8 and Himawari-9 satellites.
The system is used for weather analysis, forecasting, and disaster prevention.
He hopes in the near future, with the installation of this system, Niue will be able to map their own weather details with disaster monitoring and high-quality images delivered at regular intervals and broadcast real-time weather data.
The installation of this satellite dish system is expected to be done in two years time. The project is funded by JICA under the Weather Ready Pacific Program.
He departs the island tomorrow.
