By Lovely A. Carillo
DAVAO CITY, Nov. 20 (PNA) — The Philippine government is banking on the high-resolution powers of a super computer called Blue Gene/P to be able to come up with a seven-day advanced weather prediction system for the country.
“We are focusing on climate change adaptation technologies to make sure that we reduce the risks of typhoons and other effects of climate change to the country,” Smarter Philippines Program Leader Dr. Alejandro O. Melchor III said.
The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) earlier launched the country’s flagship program on disaster prevention and mitigation known as Project NOAH, or the Nationwide Operational Assessments of Hazards.
Melchor said to make the country’s fight against climate change more effective, the NOAH-WISE project or Weather Information-integration for System Enhancement will soon be launched.
The NOAH-WISE Team has been assembled and are working on programs that will make weather forecasting more relevant to disaster-prone communities.
“With the use of the super computer, the DOST will now be able to predict the weather seven days in advance compared to the present practice where we only have a six-hour lead,” he said.
The weather prediction under this project is also location-specific so it will really guide communities who are at-risk of flooding and other disasters, he added.
The NOAH-WISE Project Team is now working with IBM Philippines to run the weather model using the super computer.
Melchor said DOST is also hastening the completion of the storm surge mapping and will be able to deliver it to the local government units so they will be forewarned if their areas are in the storm surge map.
He said they used to concentrate on the creation of a tsunami mapping since historically, tsunamis are a common problem in the country. But with the killer storm surge in Tacloban City, government scientists are now working overtime to come up with the storm surge map. (PNA)