A technical meeting on a regional weather radar network for Southeast Asia was held at the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) headquarters in Tokyo from 13 to 15 November 2019. The meeting was attended by seven representatives from National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) in Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, and was also observed on 13 and 14 November by trainees on a technical weather-radar course run by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Japan during the same period.

JMA works to further the use of weather radar in Southeast Asia as part of its activities on the UNESCAP/WMO Typhoon Committee project, by which participating countries exchange domestic radar composite data and provide regional radar composite imagery to Typhoon Committee members. This initiative is expected to generate substantial synergies with the ongoing RA-II and -V WMO Integrated Global Observing System (WIGOS) project for capacity building relating to radar expertise in Southeast Asia, and with activities conducted under the ASEAN framework.

The meeting featured presentations on radar operation by each country and on progress in regional radar compositing. Areas of discussion included challenges relating to domestic radar data, future plans for the related radar network, and the promotion of regional radar compositing.

The summary report is available at
http://www.jma.go.jp/jma/en/photogallery/meeting2019/Report_radarmeeting2019.pdf.