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Meteorological Information More Easily Available To Chinese Public
Beijing - Mar 29, 2004 As a meteorological monitoring system consisting of 400 radars, 1,606 automatic meteorological stations and six satellites was put in place in China by the end of 2003, meteorological information becomes increasingly accessible to the Chinese society. China has successfully modernized its meteorological services, said Qin Dahe, director of the China Meteorological Administration(CMA), Tuesday at a ceremony here celebrating International Meteorological Day, which falls on March 23 every year. To mark this year's Meteorological Day, themed "Weather, Climate and Water in an Information Age", CMA entertained visitorsfrom all walks of life last Saturday, opening the usually low-profile administration to questions such as "why snowfall in Beijing kept decreasing in recent years" and showing over 2,000 interested people how weather-forecasting TV programs are made. Hu Yuanyuan, a student from the Beijing-based University of International Business and Economics (UIBE) who toured CMA last Saturday, told Xinhua that it is of critical importance to learn meteorological knowledge because "almost all human activities are closely related to factors such as weather, climate and water." In fact, against a backdrop of unprecedented social and economic changes, the human society is facing many challenges in disaster-relief, food security, management of water resources, transportation, tourism and pollution control, all of which can not be independent of meteorological factors. Statistics with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) show meteorological and hydrographic disasters contributed to over 80 percent of total losses caused by natural disasters in the pastten years. As one of the countries witnessing the most frequent meteorological disasters worldwide, China is pestered by natural mishaps such as drought, flood, heat and frost. Some 600 million Chinese people were affected by such meteorological uncertainties and the disasters lead to losses amounting to three to six percentof the national economic output every year. However, as the Chinese society is attaching greater importanceto "realizing a sustainable development", weather, climate and water, factors playing key roles in the national economy, have attracted unprecedented attention from the general public. Wang Yongguang, an expert from the China Climate Center, said scientific and technological development, especially the increasingly extensive application of information technologies, has made accurate weather and climate monitoring and forecasting possible. "Quick collection and distribution of meteorological information will greatly facilitate the cause of reasonably developing and protecting climatic and water resources," said Wang. International Meteorological Day was launched by WMO in 1960 tocommemorate the WMO treaty that came into effect on March 23, 1950. The annual event focuses on a particular theme each year and features global activities aiming to popularize meteorological knowledge and information among the general public. Source: Xinhua News Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express The Chinese Space Program - News, Policy and Technology China News from SinoDaily.com
Taikonauts On Moon A Far Off Dream For China Yet
Beijing (XNA) Jan 05, 2006A one-year lunar fly-by mission may start in April 2007 in China, but a manned flight to the Earth's neighbour may be a long way away, a chief lunar exploration scientist said last night. |
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