Strategic Plan | Central Weather Administration

CWA Strategic Plan for 2023

The Central Weather Administration's (CWA's) mission is to make thorough meteorological observations, refine meteorological forecasts, and create diversified meteorological services, by increasing both land and sea observation coverage, making customized disaster warning services more widespread, and improving QPF ability, forecast capability and service efficiency, so as to provide quality meteorological services and better fulfill its role in disaster prevention and mitigation and economic development promotion. In accordance with the Annual Administrative Policies of the Executive Yuan and the CWA mid-term programs, the CWA 2023 strategic plan has been formulated on the basis of the ratified budget with the following emphases to meet its future development goals and the society's needs:

I. Upgrading meteorological observation facilities and enhancing weather monitoring ability
1. Continuing the six-year project of “Meteorological Satellite Data Environment Monitoring Services (2022-2027).” Tasks include:
  1. For stable meteorological satellite operations and better observation infrastructure: maintaining current operation systems and monitoring operational environment; establishing new reception systems for Japanese Himawari-9, Korean GEO-KOMPAT-2B, European METOP-SG A1/B1, and American JPSS-2 satellites; updating virtual and physical facilities; and enhancing AI mainframe computing efficiency.
  2. For broader service range of satellite products and better monitoring of hazardous weather and environment: using various observation data to build satellite product verification techniques; ensuring the reasonability of operational products; focusing on the applications of weather and environment monitoring; analyzing satellite big data with AI technology; and providing product application services with new website technology.
2. Integrating marine meteorological observation system to promote efficacy of information application. Main tasks include: maintenance of 30 inshore tide stations and 12 data collecting buoys, enhancement of marine forecasting techniques, and improvement of marine data application and services.
3. Continuing year 3 of the six-year project of “Intelligent Marine Environmental Disaster Prevention Services (2021-2026).” Tasks include: establishing offshore observation piles; implementing ship observations; building data collecting buoy network; adding more wave and current remote-sensing stations; enhancing coastal upper-air and surface stations; establishing freak wave warning system around the island; improving wind energy forecasting system in sea areas; developing down-scaling marine forecast system and providing smart marine information services, in order to expand weather and marine monitoring range, enhance marine disaster warning capability, establish integrated cloud services, and ensure the safety of marine environment.
II. Enhancing technical development and advancing auxiliary systems of weather forecasting
1. Continuing the four-year project of "Toward Smart Weather Information Application and Service (2020-2023)." Main tasks include:
  1. For diversified meteorological services: developing satellite-retrieved products for cross-sectoral application services, enhancing customized information services for disaster prevention, adding 5-star open-data links relating to public applications, expanding historical open-data supply, and evaluating the socioeconomic effectiveness of public meteorological services.
  2. For intelligent innovation applications: using AI technology to develop numerical model prediction value-added products, implementing intelligent city cross-sector cooperation, completing case studies of major historical weather events, and completing IT equipment intelligent monitoring system for all operation centers.
  3. For pioneering meteorological technology: extending the forecast period of tropical depression track forecast; implementing hourly updates of nowcasting products within 6 hours; providing township-scale warnings and advisories; developing 3 to 4 week extreme temperature and precipitation forecast products and seasonal extreme event forecast guidance; improving regional model typhoon track and intensity forecast accuracy by 8%; establishing air-sea data assimilation system of new generation global weather forecast system (CWA FV3-GFS); and developing air-sea coupling forecast system and 1km-resolution regional numerical model.
2. Commencing the four-year project of "Building a Seamless Weather Service Value Chain (1/4): Bridging Agriculture, Fishery and Optoelectronics (2023-2026)." Main tasks include:
  1. Applying high-resolution satellite observations and numerical forecast to produce disastrous extreme climate warning for agriculture and fishery by providing more refined and diverse customized weather information, increasing warning time by producing monthly and seasonal disastrous extreme climate warnings, and improving the efficiency of weather information applications to the daily operation and disaster prevention and reduction for agriculture and fishery.
  2. Improving agriculture and fishery weather application efficiency and climate service promotion mechanism by completing the evaluation of agriculture and fishery weather service economic benefits and analysis of the need for applications, establishing a national-level climate service framework, and helping with the industrial transformation and upgrade of agriculture and fishery to cope with climate change.
  3. Establishing short-term (under 3 hours) prediction of solar power generation capacity and evaluation of agrivoltaics’ impact on agricultural micro-climate.
3. Continuing the six-year project of "Improving the Disaster Prevention Warning Techniques of Weather Radar (2019-2024)." Main tasks include:
  1. Continuing to update, build and strengthen meteorological radars to enhance the ability to monitor severe weather.
  2. Developing technology for integrating and analyzing data obtained from different radar operation frequencies and disdrometer, so as to enhance quantitative precipitation estimation technology and evaluate its efficiency.
  3. Establishing an operational testing platform for the convective-scale ensemble forecast system by formulating an optimal adjustment strategy of radar data assimilation technology.
  4. Enhancing data mining performance of radar data, integrating high temporal resolution monitoring data, and incorporating forecast guidance for the uncertainty of convective storm impacts to improve the efficiency of issuing encrypted rainfall forecast in periods of larger-scale or intense heavy rainfall.
III. Increasing the efficacy of earthquake monitoring
1. Continuing the six-year project of "Strong-motion observation VI: Developing an Intelligent Earthquake Early Warning System (2022-2027)." Main tasks include:
  1. Maintaining seismic and geophysical stations.
  2. Improving earthquake location processes, developing machine learning technology, and improving EEW capabilities.
  3. Giving private companies access to EEW information for application development.
  4. Optimizing the Geophysical Database System.
  5. Collaborating with academia to establish earthquake precursor analysis technology by using big data.
2. Continuing the six-year project of "Implementation of Ocean-bottom Earthquake and Tsunami Monitoring System in Southern Offshore area of Taiwan (2021-2026)." The aim of this year is to accomplish the procurement process of the project. Main tasks include:
IV. Improving meteorological services and meteorological disaster prevention outreach programs
1. Delivering meteorological information in plain language, and promoting disaster prevention and climate change awareness through public education and outreach programs.
2. Continuing to upgrade the functions of the customized new-generation QPEplus system for 19 government agencies in charge of public transportation, national defense, disaster relief, etc., utilizing advanced features that work across browsers, GIS and high-efficiency display performance, and promoting QPEplus customized services to more users.
3. Promoting climate services and development of the weather industry to help face the risks and challenges of future climate change by making the most of meteorological information to raise awareness, reduce risks, create benefits, and strengthen Taiwan’s climate resilience.