Data released from Taiwan's first domestically-built weather satellite

Taipei, July 12 (CNA) The Taiwan Space Agency (TASA) announced Friday that wind speed data collected by Triton, Taiwan's first domestically-built meteorological satellite, is being used to improve the accuracy of heavy rainfall forecasts.

Launched in October last year, Triton, also known as the Wind-Hunter satellite, was developed domestically from system design to integration testing, with over half of its components being locally manufactured, said Lin Chen-tsung (林辰宗), leader of the Triton program, at a press conference.

"Currently, we are operating (Triton) primarily in several oceans and collecting data daily," Lin said, adding that Triton can gather approximately 30,000 to 40,000 sets of observation data every day, which can be used to generate 7,000 to 8,000 sets of wind speed data.

The data, including on low-speed wind, sea surface roughness, and delay-Doppler map (representation of signals received by satellites measuring reflections from the Earth's surface), has been made available since May 31 for users of Taiwan Analysis Center for COSMIC (TACC), a center jointly established by the TASA and Central Weather Administration (CWA), Lin said.

Yang Shu-chih (楊舒芝), chair of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at National Central University, shared preliminary research findings from Triton's data, highlighting that it provides wind speed data for near-surface regions, filling gaps in radar observation and effectively improving the accuracy of rainfall forecasts.

"It is believed that this will greatly assist in the future forecasting of severe weather in Taiwan," Yang said.

The CWA currently uses wind speed and wave height data from Triton as supplementary monitoring information for forecasts, said CWA head Cheng Chia-ping (程家平).

Cheng hopes the number of people using Triton's data will increase after the official release of data, citing the example of data generated by FORMOSAT-7, a constellation of six meteorological satellites launched in 2019 in cooperation with the United States, which is now used by 20,000 users across 92 countries.

Wu Jong-shinn (吳宗信), director-general of TASA, said that TASA has experience in satellite development, but this is actually the first time Taiwan developed a Global Navigation Satellite System-Reflectometry (GNSS-R) payload.

Wu explained that GNSS-R involves the analysis of the strength of signals reflected off the ocean surface -- strong when calm and weak when rough -- to infer sea surface roughness and estimate wind speed using mathematical and physical principles.

Relevant organizations abroad have expressed their intention to collaborate with TASA, Wu said, adding that they want to develop applications and technologies to collect high-speed wind data from Triton.

Wu also mentioned that there are plans to include GNSS-R and GNSS radio occultation (GNSS-RO) payloads in future satellite missions, with the aim of launching one to two satellites each year.