In recent years, meteorological services in China and Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) have developed fruitful collaboration in terms of meteorological monitoring, forecasting, personnel exchange, training as well as several other areas.

Mr. Bounteum Sysouphanthavong, Director of Weather Forecast Division of DMH, was interviewed by China Meteorological News Press and shared his comments and perspectives on DMH-CMA meteorological cooperation.

Expert: Mr. Bounteum Sysouphanthavong

Journalist: LIU Shuqiao

Invited Correspondent: WANG Yi

Technical Meeting between National Meteorological Centre of CMA and DHM at National Early Warning Center of Lao PDR

Question: Customized interactive website established for Lao PDR by World Meteorological Centre Beijing has provided forecasting products like global models of GRAPES_GFS, global smart grid forecasting, and FENGYUN meteorological satellite cloud images, etc. What do you think about this website regarding meteorological service for DMH and the technical exchanges between the two sides?

Mr. Bounteum Sysouphanthavong: Nowadays, the demand from users for meteorological and hydrological information is increasing day by day, especially for short-range, medium-range and long-range forecasts. Information must be highly accurate and able to specify the area, magnitude, and timeliness correctly. So from these requirements, for us as information providers, it's quite challenging to provide products according to the users' needs because the weather is very sensitive and variable, especially in our area as tropical regions.

So to have good weather information, forecasters should have good knowledge, good skills on meteorology, and Meteorological Services have enough ground observation stations as well as the upper-air observation data, and also good facilities on weather analysis and numerical weather predictions, etc.

The information from the website established for DMH by World Meteorological Centre Beijing has created a lot of facilities for us, especially the weather charts analysis, satellite imageries analysis, and also numerical weather prediction products. It can improve the accuracy of weather forecasting in Lao PDR.

Technical Visit at Provincial Met Office of Lao PDR

Question: Meteorological operation data procedure based on CMACast has been established in Lao PDR by CMA. How is this operating now? CMACast data reception stations have been set up in Lao PDR, which can obtainFENGYNmeteorological cloud images and data products. How are they functioning now? Is there any example case of supporting operational services in Lao PDR?

Mr. Bounteum Sysouphanthavong: After the installation of the CMACast system in DMH of Lao PDR, the experts from CMA also organized training for our technical staff on how to use it, and also how to utilize the system especially for the weather analysis and maintenance. So the forecasters from weather forecasting and warning divisions use the system for weather monitoring, analysis, and forecasts.

With the support of CMA Help Desk, the system can work normally. If something is wrong with the system, we can notify the CMA Help Desk and after that we get a solution promptly, and can solve the problem so that the system can work properly. For example, CMA experts can set up the CMACast system and MICAPS system in weather division of DMH of Lao PDR.

NMC forecasting Products Demonstration at DMH of Lao PDR

Question: Do you think the cooperation has promoted the capacity of Lao PDR in terms of meteorological forecasting, disaster prevention and mitigation, and public services, and boost meteorological operational service for both sides? Are there any examples?

Mr. Bounteum Sysouphanthavong: The bilateral cooperation of the two countries promotes and empowers technical staff, especially technical staff from DMH, who have participated in training courses on short-and medium-term weather forecast, agro-meteorological and aeronautical meteorology, satellites, and others, held by CMA, in Kunming, Nanjing and other places in China. CMA also dispatched the experts to visit DMH.

Technical Training of WMC Beijing at DMH of Lao PDR

Question: How to further consolidate bilateral cooperation between CMA and meteorological departments in Lao PDR in terms of exploring broader areas of collaboration and improving cooperative mechanism under the framework of Nanning Initiative and World Meteorological Organization?

Mr. Bounteum Sysouphanthavong: By referring to the agreement of Nanning Initiative on China-ASEAN Cooperation in Meteorology -- Regional monitoring of and co-preparedness for meteorological disasters, I think we should take action to implement those measures. For instance, we should strengthen the meteorological cooperation on institutions and regular basis between Lao PDR and China. Furthermore, we should enhance the cooperation in meteorological observations within the regions, especially in terms of the exchange of meteorological observations and data.

Editor: JIANG Zhiqing