MACAO, CHINA

COUNTRY REPORT 2006

39th SESSION ESCAP/WMO TYPHOON COMMITTEE

(Manila, Philippines, 4 - 9 December 2006)

MACAO METEOROLOGICAL AND GEOPHYSICAL BUREAU

(SMG) October 2006

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I. Overview of Meteorological and Hydrological Conditions during the Year (with focus on impacts of tropical cyclones)

From October 2005 to

September 2006, Macao was affected by four tropical cyclones CHANCHU(0601), JELAWAT (0602), PRAPIROON(0606), BOPHA(0609) and two tropical depression.

Typhoon CHANCHU(0601)

necessitated the hoisting of the first tropical cyclone warning signal in 2006. It was also one of

the earliest warnings issued in May since 1990. CHANCHU was at its closest position to Macao at about 263 km to the east-southeast around 11:00L.T. on 17th May 2006. The minimum station pressure recorded was 986.0hPa, while maximum mean wind of 52km/h and gust wind of 90 km/h were recorded respectively. Average of about 10mm of precipitation were generally recorded but with no report of flooding.

Typhoon PRAPIROON(0606) was the only one necessitated the hoisting of the local

tropical cyclone warning signal No.8. During its passage, minimum station pressure recorded was 979.9hPa, while maximum mean wind of 94km/h and gust of 136km/h were recorded respectively. Average of about 150mm of precipitation were generally recorded but with no report of flooding. PRAPIROON was at its closest position to Macao at about 200km to the southwest around 13:00L.T. on 3rd August 2006.

II. Meteorology

1. Progress in Member’s Regional Co-operation and Selected RCPIP Goals and Objectives:

1a. Hardware and Software Progress

Nil 1b. Implications for Operational Progress

Nil

1c. Interaction with users, other Members, and/or other components

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A joint exercise on tsunami was performed on May 17, together with PTWC, JMA and National Ocean Bureau of China. In addition, with effective from early August, PTWC and JMA has started sending through e-mail messages on tsunami alarms and SMG also started the study of using SMS messages to disseminate the alarms to related personnel.

1d. Training progress

Overseas training Opportunities/Courses/Seminars/Workshops attended by SMG personnel:

Oversea Training Course/Seminar/Workshop

Venue Duration No. of

participants

Technical Training Course in Meteorological Radar

Beijing, China 17-21 Oct 2005 3

Visit to Hong Kong Environmental Protection Department

Hong Kong, China 14 Oct 2005 2

Annual Conference of the China Meteorological Society

Suzhou, China 25-27 Oct 2005 1

Commission for Climatology XIV Session Beijing, China 3-10 Nov 2005 1 Seminar on Quality Management in the Provision of Meteorological Services to Aviation

Hong Kong, China 22-25 Nov 2005 1

Visit to Guangdong Environmental Protection Monitoring Center

Guangzhou, China 13 Dec 2005 2

Visit to National Time Service Center Xian, China 7-8 Jan 2006 2 Visit to National Meteorological Center and Training Center of the China Meteorological Administration

Beijing, China 24-25 Jan 2006 2

Visit to City University of Hong Kong Hong Kong, China 21 Feb 2006 2 Seminar on Climatic Tendency Prediction of southern China during the Rainy Season of 2006

Guangzhou, China 15-16 Mar 2006 1

Developing Improved Regional Emission Inventories for China: A Capacity-Building Workshop

Guangzhou, China 20-21 Mar 2006 1

Seminar on the Construction of Seismic Monitoring Station

Guangzhou, China 29-30 Mar 2006 2

Training Course on Doppler Weather Radar Detection of Severe Convective Storm and Nowcast

Beijing, China 10-21 Apr 2006 2

Haze Weather Seminar Guangzhou, China 25-26 Apr 2006 1 Final Workshop and Management Committee Toulouse, France 15-19 May 2006 1

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Meeting and Working Group Meeting of COST Action 720 –Integrated ground-based remote-sensing stations for atmospheric profiling Training Course for Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory Compilation

Hong Kong, China 15-26 May 2006 2

Seminar on Monitoring Experiment and Research of Heavy Rain in southern China

Guangzhou, China 22 May 2006 1

Management Committee Meeting and Working Group Meeting of COST Action 728 – Enhancing Mesoscale Meteorological Modelling Capabilities for Air Pollution and Dispersion Applications

Warsaw, Poland 1-2 Jun 2006 1

Visit to Hong Kong Observatory Hong Kong, China 27 Jun 2006 3 10th Meeting of the Communications/Navigation/Surveillance and Meteorology Sub-Group (CNS/MET/SG/9) of APANPIRG

Bangkok, Thailand 17-21 Jul 2006 1

Visit to Guangdong Environmental Protection Monitoring Center

Guangzhou, China 15 Aug 2006 2

EMC “CLARiiON Host Integration and Management” Training Course

Hong Kong, China 28-30 Aug 2006 2

2nd Training Course for Meteorologist Beijing, China 11 Sep – 7 Dec 2006

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Visit to Guangzhou Airport Guangzhou, China 14 Sep 2006 2 Visit to Beijing Airport Beijing, China 18-20 Sep 2006 1

Total: 24 38

1e. Research Progress

Following were papers presented by SMG colleagues at the 20th Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Seminar on Meteorological Science and Technology held in Macao, China on January 18-20 2006: (1) The Analysis of Typhoon “DAMREY”(0518) (2) An analysis of a continuous heavy rain event in middle August 2005. (3) Analysis on Rainstorm Process in Macao on June 21, 2005 (4) Discussion on the Import of Remote Sensing Data into Data Assimilation System (5) Comparison among Forecast Models of Variation Tendency in Meteorological Data

of Macao Single Station (6) Discussion on the Auto-verification of Automatic Weather Station Data (7) Conceptual Models for the Number of Days of High Pollutant Concentration in

South China

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In cooperation with “China Meteorological Press”, proceeding namely“MMGB Collected Papers (Vol.2 English Version) --- Asia Summer Monsoon and Mesoscale Numerical Simulation＂was published on May 29 2006. The proceeding consists of three parts. Part I is articles in Asia summer monsoon including 7 papers with emphasis on the characteristics of climate change in Asia summer monsoon, where Part II is articles in mesoscale numerical simulation including 14 papers and this part is also involved with heavy rain and typhoon. All the papers in these two parts have already been published in scientific journals. Followed is Part III consisting of 21 extended abstracts for papers presented by staff of SMG at various conferences/seminars.

1f. Other Cooperative/RCPIP Progress

The Expanded Best Track (EBT) data of Macao for the period 1968 to 2005 was compiled and sent to the Regional Specialized Meteorological Center (RSMC), Tokyo in November 2005 and March 2006.

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2. Progress in Member’s Important, High-Priority Goals and Objectives

2a. Hardware and Software Progress

Implementation of SAN solution for internal file

servers and database server. By replacing existing NAS systems by an EMC CX300 with FC and SATA disks, concentrate data and files into faster and larger storage environment.

The “Leap Second” adjustment was performed on 1 January

2006. To further enhance the quality and accuracy of time service, Sprectrum dynamics Inc’s Micro Phase Stepper was installed.

New Telephone Weather Enquire system was installed and

implemented from January 2006. The system provide in 3 languages, Chinese (with 2 dialects---Mandarin and Cantonese), English and Portuguese, the real time weather report, forecast and warnings and air quality report and forecast. It is one of the popular

and widely used public services in Macao. Applying cluster technology in Linux and Windows server. To

increase availability and reliability of critical servers, setup cluster configuration on both platforms so that avoid single point of failure of hardware and also share workload.

1-Megabyte optical fibre broadband was linked between Airport

Meteorological Office and SMG to be well protected from thunder attacks and ensure aeronautical meteorological data provided to the forecasters and other airport users, especially during severe weather situations like thunderstorms.

Acid rain collector and measuring instruments with daily sampling rate was installed at

Taipa Grande, for measuring pH value, temperature and conductivity of rain sample.

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2b. Implications for Operational Progress

New Airport Meteorological Office homepage was launched on March 15 2006 to provide aeronautical meteorological information to internal users of Macao International Airport.

New Airport Thunderstorm Warning with

increase element of forecasting was started from July 10, 2006 to provide the airport entities in making better planning.

2c. Interaction with users, other Members, and/or other components

As LED board were installed on the two ends of the Sai Van Bridge, a major link

between Macao peninsula and Taipa especially during Tropical Cyclone situation. Weather information such as real time weather situation, forecast and warnings are disseminated through special network and display on the LED board.

Local weather forecast and warnings as well as weather forecast for major cities in

China were provided to new TV broadcast company, the MASTV (Macao Asian Satellite Television Company). The broadcast of MASTV cover China and most of the countries of South East Asia.

To arouse the public regarding the importance and the influence of severe weather

and climate change as well as promote knowledge and understanding of general science on meteorology and geophysics, a program on “Interactive Talk” was provided by our colleagues to the students of local high schools from March 13 to 31. Topics of the talk included “Preventing and mitigating Typhoon disasters”, “Climate Change”, “Earthquake and its Influence”, “Knowing Rainstorm and its impact”, “Air Pollution and Health” and “Horizontal Eye-safe Mie LIDAR for Monitoring of Urban Aerosols in Macao”. The program obtained positive participation from many schools and the effect was desirable and fruitful. Totally 28 lectures were delivered and with over 5200 students attended.

2d. Training progress

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Eight colleagues from our bureau continued attend the Higher Diploma Course on Meteorology course in Macao Polytechnic Institute.

Dr. Song Yang of NOAA and Dr. Wang Baomin and Dr. Fanqi of Sun Yat-sen

University were invited to deliver several lectures, including topics on the development of Climatological Model, Lidar, Atmospheric Turbulence and Boundary Layer Meteorology.

2e. Research Progress

Meteorological research in collaboration with Department of Atmospheric Physics of

Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China is continued. Ten research papers were published in different scientific journals and proceedings from October 2005 to September 2006:

1. Effect of Condensational Heating over the Bay of Bengal on the onset of the South

China Sea Monsoon in 1998; Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics; Vol.90, No. 1-2, 2005, p.37-47

2. Effects of Condensation Heating and Surface Fluxes on the Development of A

South China Mesoscale Convective System(MCS); Journal of Tropical Meteorology, Vol .11,No.2, Dec.,2005, p144-153.

3. Climatic Characteristics of Precipitation and Temperature in the Past 45 Years in

Guangxi; Tropical Geography; Vol. 26, No. 1 Feb., 2006 ,(in Chinese).

4. Separated Horizontal Velocities for Moisture Atmospheric Movement, Climate Change and Variability; Proceedings of Annual meeting of Chinese Association of Science and Technology 2005, Feb.2006, Meteorological Press, China, p.203-205,(in Chinese)

5. Seasonal Variation of Strong Wind Distribution of Tropical Cyclones in South

China Sea; Climate Change and Variability, Proceedings of Annual meeting of Chinese Association of Science and Technology 2005, Feb.2006, Meteorological Press, China, p.49-52,(in Chinese)

6. Numerical Study of the Relationship between the Flood of Guangdong Province

and Sea Surface Temperature of South China Sea in May 1998, Climate Change and Variability; Proceedings of Annual meeting of Chinese Association of Science and Technology 2005, Feb.2006, Meteorological Press, China, p.87-89,(in

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Chinese)

7. Four Stages of Rainfall Period in the South China Sea, Climate Change and Variability; Proceedings of Annual meeting of Chinese Association of Science and Technology 2005, Feb.2006, Meteorological Press, China, p.112-115,(in Chinese)

8. The Effects of Climatic Fluctuation in the Late Half of 20 Century on Chinese

Rainfall; Climate Change and Variability, Proceedings of Annual meeting of Chinese Association of Science and Technology 2005, Feb.2006, Meteorological Press, China, p.124-126,(in Chinese)

9. A Study on the Urbanization Effects on the Atmospheric Boundary Layer of

Pearl River Delta; Climate Change and Variability, Proceedings of Annual meeting of Chinese Association of Science and Technology 2005, Feb.2006, Meteorological Press, China, p.82-86,(in Chinese)

10. Assimilation of QuikScat Data and Its Impact on Prediction of Typhoon

Vongfong(2002); Acta Scientiarum Naturalium Universitatis Sunyatseni, Vol. 45, No.4, July 2006, p.116-120, (in Chinese).

2f. Other Co-operative/RCPIP progress

The “11th Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Meteorological Operational Cooperation meeting” was also held on 18 January. Issues on cooperation of meteorological data and information exchange and sharing, severe weather forecast and briefing etc. were discussed.

The “20th Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao

Seminar on Meteorological Science and Technology” was held in Macao from January 18 to 20. The seminar brought together 30 participants from the three places sharing and exchanging, through presentation and discussion, experience and research study. The presentation included topics on Severe Weather, Forecast Technique with new Technology, Observation and Database.

"2nd Guangdong, Hongkong and Macao Seminar on Earthquake Science and

technology " held in Macao from March 1 to 2. The seminar brought together 39 participants

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from the three places sharing and exchanging, through presentation and discussion, experience and research study on the topic of earthquake and its influence. During the seminar, 17 papers were presented by the three parties, which included topics on the forecast, prevention, application and development of earthquake, Earthquake Engineering and tsunami.

3. Opportunities for further Enhancement of Regional Co-operation

Nil.

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III. Hydrology 1. Progress in Member’s Regional Co-operation and Selected RCPIP Goals

and Objectives

Seminar on climate precipitation forecast of southern China during the Rainy Season of 2006 was held with neighboring Meteorological Bureau.

1c. Interaction with users, other Members, and/or other components

“Workshop on Integrating Activities of the Hydrology, Meteorology and DPP components of the Typhoon Committee into the Related International Frameworks for Disaster Risk Management for Better Impacts and Visibility” was held in Macao, China from 4 to 9 September 2006. The Workshop was attended by 65 participants from 13 out of 14 Members of the Typhoon Committee, namely: Cambodia; China; Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea; Hong Kong, China; Japan; Lao People’s Democratic Republic; Macao, China; Malaysia; Philippines; Republic of Korea; Thailand; the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam; and the United States of America (USA). The Workshop was also attended by representatives from the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and Typhoon Committee Secretariat (TCS).

2. Progress in Member’s Important, High-Priority Goals and Objectives 2a. Hardware and Software Progress

Nil 2b. Implications for Operational Progress

Nil 2c. Interaction with users, other Members, and/or other components

Nil

3. Opportunities for Further Enhancement of Regional Co-operation

Nil

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IV. Disaster Prevention and Preparedness 1. Progress in Member’s Regional Co-operation and Selected RCPIP Goals and

Objectives Nil

2. Progress in Member’s Important, High-Priority Goals and Objectives

The Organization of Civil Protection Framework has established the “Action Plan of 2006” in the beginning of this year, the following examples are listing some events implemented during the year according to the plan. 1. Amendment of the strategic plan for civil protection

and established the concepts and guidelines for action planning (a) Update members of the Civil Protection

composition and define the work task to the new member,

(b) Update contact details of each members, (c) Establish guideline of operation strategy for main holidays or large-scale

activities to the relevant departments of each Security Force and distribute to them after getting the approval from the Chief Secretary for Security.

2. Meeting with all members of Civil Protection was held

(a) Assess and improve the exercise of last year regarding the Civil Protection from

the tropical cyclone, (b) Introduce contingency plans by each members, (c) Explain and discuss the 2006 exercise of civil protection from the tropical

cyclone and its details.

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3. Exercise of Civil Protection for tropical cyclone

Due to the location of MacaoSAR, tropical cyclone is a common natural disaster to Macao. Therefore, the most important exercise of civil protection is to emphasize on the tropical cyclone and its various impacts.

The goals of the exercise are to simulate a practical situation for operational staff

within the civil protection system, as well as to test the resulting situations, response and communication as they receive and execute the action order from the Civil Protection Operational Center, and to follow up and improve those inadequate conditions afterwards.

4. To promote the Protection Measures

Distribute relevant information, flysheet or booklet etc. on disaster prevention of tropical cyclone and other disasters to the electronic media and newspaper, government or private sectors, so as to enhance the public awareness of civil protection and early respond of prevention.

5. Other targeted exercises

In 2006, the Organization of Civil Protection Framework of Macao organizes not only the exercise of Civil Protection from tropical cyclone, but also coordinates and organizes members of the Civil Protection System for targeted exercises, according to the content traits of various types of proposal for emergency response. These include, the exercise for Macao harbor to test safety of facilities and response of accident, the exercise for testing the security of the Macao container terminal, the exercise for the

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security management of Macao fuel depot, the exercises for various accidents and security of Macao International Airport (e.g. hijack, bomb threat to the airport), the exercise for the accident and emergent rescue of underpass of the Sai Van Bridge, the exercise for rainstorm warning and the exercise for evacuation during the fire alarm in the schools, and the exercises for various fire alarm and emergent rescues etc, so as to testing the management and the capability to deal with contingency and emergence of each members of Civil Protection System.

Once after the implementation of various exercises or actual operation, the Organization of Civil Protection Framework will collect all reports from each member of Civil Protection System and then execute the investigation and review, and follow up the procedures, so as to draft a final report for the exercise and to inform all members the improving works after submitting the report to the Chief Secretary for Security and getting his approval of the suggestions stated in the report.

The goals of the exercise are to enhance the efficiency and capability of the members

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of civil protection in managing and executing affairs related to civil protection, to draw public awareness of the importance of civil protection and to promote individual consciousness of civil protection. Thus, it acts as a key function to the future work in early warning, disaster reduction and disaster elimination.

3. Opportunities for further Enhancement of Regional Co-operation

Nil

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V. Typhoons that Impacted Macao, China

From October 2005 to September 2006, Macao was affected by four tropical cyclones CHANCHU(0601), JELAWAT(0602), PRAPIROON(0606), BOPHA(0609) and two tropical depression. No flooding was reported during the passage of these tropical cyclones or tropical depression.

Typhoon PRAPIROON(0606) was the only one necessitated the hoisting of the local

tropical cyclone warning signal No.8. and following are list of the total numbers of incidents caused by PRAPIROON.

Traffic accidents 2 Landslide 1 Damage to the water supply network 1 Damage to the network of sewers 2 Collapse of scaffoldings/Billboard/Defense Wall etc. 52 Fallen of Metal Awnings/Eaves/Window 85 Collapse of trees 50 Collapse of Lighting Cable/Lamppost 4 Damage to buildings or other constructions 5 Interruption to the power supply 1 Carry the injured persons to hospital 7 Carry the patients to hospital 22 Other incidents 18

Total numbers of incidents: 250

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VI. Resource Mobilization Activities

Renovation and redecoration of premises for future Typhoon Committee Secretariat has accomplished and ready for operation.]