RIC Tsukuba and other fully qualified RICs play multi-functional roles, as outlined in "WMO/RICs". Since its establishment in 1998, RIC Tsukuba has fulfilled these functions in collaboration with other RICs as well as holding technical workshops for RA II Members and dispatching experts to international meetings on subjects including observation methods, meteorological instruments and calibration. Some of the Center's recent achievements are detailed below.
1. Collaboration with other RICs
In response to growing worldwide demand for further functional enhancement of RICs, RIC Tsukuba has strengthened its activities since 2009 and developed exchanges and collaboration with other RICs. (See below for event photos.)
- RIC Tsukuba staff paid a visit to France’s RIC Toulouse (designated as an RIC in December 2009) for discussions.
- A calibration trial using traveling standard instruments was conducted in collaboration with the Thai Meteorological Department (TMD) in Bangkok, Thailand, in February 2010.
- Staff from RIC Beijing and RIC Tsukuba (both in RA II) took part in an exchange visit program for discussions in February and March 2010.
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| Visit to RIC Toulouse | RIC Tsukuba/RIC Beijing exchange visit |
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| Calibration trial with TMD |
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JMA now collaborates with the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA; an RA V RIC) via a JICA project on calibration, traceability and observation methods.
For details of collaboration results, see Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA).
2. JMA/WMO Training Workshop on Calibration and Maintenance of Meteorological Instruments in RA II (Asia)
In collaboration with WMO, JMA held a training workshop on calibration and maintenance of meteorological instruments from 19 to 22 February, 2013, at its headquarters and at the Regional Instrument Centre (RIC) in Tsukuba. The objective of the training was to improve understanding of measurement traceability and related skills in RA II Member countries. The workshop was a follow-up activity by RIC Tsukuba (as part of its contribution to the implementation of the WMO Integrated Global Observation System (WIGOS) in RA II) to the JMA/WMO Workshop on Quality Management in Surface, Climate and Upper-air Observations in 2010, as well as the Survey on Surface, Climate and Upper-air Observations and Quality Management of 2010 and the Questionnaire on Meteorological Instruments, Calibration and Training of 2011.
The workshop was attended by 13 experts from 13 NMHSs (Bangladesh, Cambodia, Lao PDR, the Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam) and a meteorological instrument expert from RIC Beijing. The training included presentations on the traceability and maintenance of meteorological instruments and exercises on calibration for pressure, humidity and temperature instruments. Attendees also gave comprehensive presentations on weather observation instruments used in their countries, highlighting current situations and challenges faced by individual NMHSs.
Related materials (program, attendee list, presentation content, country reports and information on related practices) are available here.
The links below lead to the supplementary presentation notes provided at the workshop. These are revised versions of the Presentation Notes from the WMO Training Workshop for RA II Instrument Specialists (Japan, 1998):
- 1 Introduction (PDF, 99 kB)
- 2 Temperature (PDF, 950 kB)
- 3 Humidity (PDF, 1,629 kB)
- 4 Wind (PDF, 761 kB)
- 5 Pressure (PDF, 519 kB)
- 6 Precipitation (PDF, 1,063 kB)
- 7 Sunshine duration and solar radiation (PDF, 377 kB)
- 8 Automatic weather observation (PDF, 60 kB)
- 9 Standards (PDF, 427 kB)
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JMA/WMO Training Workshop attendees (February 2013) |
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3. TECO-2016 and MMC-2016
RIC Tsukuba dispatches experts to international technical meetings on meteorological instruments to present its achievements, both as a RIC and as part of JMA’s Meteorological Instrument Center,
and to share its experience and expertise. Since 2010, RIC Tsukuba experts have attended the biennial WMO Technical Conference on Meteorological and Environmental Instruments and Methods of Observation (TECO).
At the latest conference, a RIC Tsukuba expert gave a presentation on the Center's international achievements at the September 2016 TECO in Madrid, Spain (TECO-2016),
and also attended the concurrently held 2nd International Conference on Metrology for Meteorology and Climate (MMC-2016) to talk about RIC Tsukuba’s instrument/calibration-related activities.
Materials from the above presentations can be accessed at "Training materials on traceability and RIC services" and "Reports on instrument experiments".
4. CIMO TECO-2018
A RIC Tsukuba expert gave a presentation on the Center's international achievements at the CIMO Technical Conference on Meteorological and Environmental Instruments and Methods of Observation (CIMO TECO-2018) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in October 2018.
The abstract of the presentation is available at Interlaboratory Comparison (ILC) in RA-II, V and VI.
5. WMO TECO-2022
A RIC Tsukuba expert gave a presentation on the Center's international achievements at the WMO Technical Conference on Meteorological and Environmental Instruments and Methods of Observation (WMO TECO-2022) in Paris, France, in October 2022.
The abstract of the presentation is available at JMA International Collaboration in the field of Meteorological Instrument Calibration.