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Recovery of Weather Observation Systems

After the earthquake on 11 March 2011, many weather observation data from AMeDAS (JMA's automated weather observation and collection system) stations in Northern Japan had been suspended due to tsunami damages, network failure, and power outage.

Example: Ogatsu station (Miyagi) before and after the earthquake
before the earthquake, in 2010.
after the earthquake, on 23 March 2011.

As of 15 April 2011, 99 percent of stations resumed operation after restoration work. Further, to ensure better weather monitoring and forecast for the affected areas, JMA has integrated weather data from NTT DoCoMo in support of JMA's weather monitoring network.

Working AMeDAS stations in the affected area
Available AMeDAS stations in Northern Japan (for seven prefectures, as of 15 April)

Photo Gallery

Recovery work at Yamada station (Iwate), where equipments resumed online via communications satellite.
At Onahama (Fukushima), rain gauge was severely damaged by the tsunami, then replaced with a new equipment.
At Sendai Airport, where weather observation equipments on the ground were swept away, new equipments were temporarily installed on the top of the airport terminal building.
At Sendai Airport, JMA staff worked on full repair of weather observation equipments before airlines restarted flight operations.