A GISTDA officials
explains how to read data from the coastal radar-based weather
monitoring station being installed on the Pratamnak Hill coastline.
Phasakorn Channgam
As construction nears completion on the first weather-radar
station in Pattaya, a Ministry of Science and Technology agency met with
city workers to train them to put the data soon to be collected to good
use.
Chaowalit Silpathong, deputy director for the Geo-Informatics and Space
Technology Development Agency met with more than 100 city council
members, community leaders and government workers Aug. 7 at city hall to
discuss implementation of the radar systems.
GISTDA is installing 18 coastal radar-based weather monitoring stations
to track storms, tidal waves and other potential sea disasters. One of
those stations is being built on the Pratamnak Hill coastline and will
soon be operational.
“From September to December every year, there are
storms causing disruption in Gulf of Thailand. Therefore, GISTDA is
installing radar on the coast to check the water currents and waves in
real time to increase confidence in managing disasters,” Chaowalit
explained.
“The benefits of installing these stations for the public is in the
management of oceanography, environment and water such as development of
water sources, planning of shipping and logistics, development of
agriculture and breeding of sea animals, sounding of emergency and
disaster mitigation, warning of sea disasters, sea rescue, fishermen and
preservation of sea and nature resources, meteorology and weather
forecast, pollution control and coastal control such as oil spills,” he
said. “GISTDA will use this information to measure the waves and water
currents and information for the satellite to monitor and predict the
mobility of oil slicks to help in collecting oil that has been scattered
in the sea.”
Training is intended to help local workers analyze and study the data as
it relates to weather changes and prevention of damage from natural
disasters. Information to be provided includes wave height and current
speed; real-time video will be available.
