Japanese
 Home > News Releases > Recovery of Observing Systems with Satellite Communication and Solar Battery

Recovery of Observing Systems with Satellite Communication and Solar Battery



One of the lessons learned through the disaster caused by “The 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake” which occurred on 11 March 2011 is the need of back up for power supply as well as communication system for observing systems. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) started to use solar battery and/or satellite communication for recovery of the observing systems.

As of 21 April 2011, 5 Automated Meteorological Data Acquisition System (AMeDAS) stations still experience disconnection of terrestrial links and/or power outage, besides Kamaishi and Ogatsu stations which have been completely destroyed by the great tsunami on 11 March 2011. However, JMA could manage to resume the observations at two of the above 7 stations, Miyako and Yamada in Iwate Prefecture on 1 April 2011 by installing satellite communication systems.

The satellite link is also used at tide gauge stations at Ofunato in Iwate Prefecture and Sendai-shinko in Miyagi prefecture, which were damaged by the great tsunami on 11 March 2011. JMA installed new tide gauge stations with a satellite communication as well as solar battery at these sites and resumed the tsunami observation on 29 and 31 of March 2011 respectively.











- Back to the top page of News releases