5th technical meeting on Himawari-8/9 Rapidly Developing Cumulus Area (RDCA) products
A technical meeting on Himawari-8/9 Rapidly Developing Cumulus Area (RDCA) products was held at the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) Headquarters from 8 to 9 December 2025. This was part of activities conducted under the Annual Operating Plan (AOP) 2024 - item 7 "Enhancing Utilization of Himawari 8/9 Products" of the Working Group on Meteorology (WGM) of the ESCAP/WMO Typhoon Committee (TC), which was endorsed at the 57th session of TC held in Manila in the Philippines from 17 to 20 February 2025. Attendees included representatives from National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) in Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The project aims to enhance NMHSs' utilization of observation data from the Himawari-8/9 geostationary meteorological satellites by developing RDCA detection techniques based on such data. The discussions were especially productive, covering recent activities and challenges relating to RDCA development, hands-on support for RDCA product development, and future work in the field, with the in-person format helping to support this.
