1. Nowcasting in Vietnam Mr. Hoang Phuc Lam
Short-range Meteorological Forecasting Division
National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting (NCHMF)
Vietnam Hydro-Meteorological Service (VHMS)

2. International Cooperation
VHMS Organization
MoNRE
VHMS
IT Center
Data Center …
9 Regional Centers
54 Provincial Centers
NCHMF
AMO
International Cooperation

3. NCHMF Missions
Regular monitoring the hydro-meteorological conditions over the whole country and related areas. 
Issuing hydro-meteorological forecasts, warnings and advisories as assigned for the disaster prevention and preparedness, socio- economic development, and national defense security. 
Carrying out researches and applications of new technologies on hydro-meteorological forecasting. 
Supplying instructions on operational hydro-meteorological forecasting; and validating the implementation of these instructions at Regional and Provincial Hydro-meteorological Centers. 
Organizing training courses on operational hydro-meteorological forecasting. 
Accomplishing international cooperation projects and programs on hydro-meteorological forecasting.

4. Aero-Meteorological Observatory (AMO) Missions
Ensure the aero-meteorological observation stations over the whole country to be ready in all conditions. 
Monitoring and collecting data of radar network over the whole country .
Cooperate with NCHMF for issuing severe weather forecasts, warnings and advisories for the disaster prevention and preparedness, socio-economic development, and national defense security. 
Carrying out researches and applications of new technologies on aero-meteorology. 
Organizing training courses on radiosonde and radar data for operators and forecasters. 

5. Department of Science and Technology and International Cooperation Missions
Orienting HMS’s research to server the following areas:
Improving forecast quality for disaster prevention and mitigation
Improving data quality, exploiting efficiently the existing equipments...
International Cooperation
Implementing and/or orienting HMS’s international cooperation in improving data observation and forecast system
Strengthen and expand cooperation with other countries and international organizations in the form of bilateral and multilateral
Expanded cooperation with international organizations (WMO, UNESCAP, UNESCO, UNEP, IHP, Typhoon Committee, ASCMG, etc.) and countries (ASEAN, France, Japan, Italy and Norway, Russia, China, Australia United States, ...) in the field of Hydro- Meteorology and Environment
...

6. Nowcasting Status Radar Network
07 Radar – 03 conventional and 04 Doppler radars
01 conventional radar from the Airport
Data quality is not good (noise, topographic effect, old radar…)
Upper-air Observational Network
5 stations (3 main stations with 2 obs/day and the other 2 is only 1 obs/day)
Satellite (receivers set up right inside NCHMF)
MTSAT (Japan)
FY2 (China)
NWP
Global models (Japan, US, US Navy, Canada, Germany, Australia)
Regional models (HRM, WRF...)

7. Radar Network
(Current and Outlook till 2020)
Conventional (Reflectivity) Radars (Thompson (French) radars)
Doppler Radars
(most of them are C-band – EEC)
Current Radars
Proposed Radar sites

8. Upper-Air Observation Network
Current stations
Proposed stations

9. Satellite images (MTSAT) Every 30 minutes
Thêm 01 ảnh FY

10. Satellite images (FY-2) Every 30 minutes
Thêm 01 ảnh FY

11. Synoptic Data - 6 hours - 3 hours (some)
Hanoi Capital Area – 5 stations from 2008
Synoptic Data - 6 hours - 3 hours (some)

12. Some Climatic Statistic about Tropical Cyclones
Landfall Tropical cyclone from 1991 to 2010
Yellow color: TD (force 6 Beaufort scale)
Red color: Typhoon (force 12 and above)

13. Annual Thunderstorm Days for North Vietnam

14. Annual Thunderstorm Days for Central Vietnam

15. Annual Thunderstorm Days for South Vietnam

16. Flood in Nov 2008

17. Flood in July 2010

18. Flood in Jul and Aug 2009

19. Nowcasting for Hanoi Area: Trial phase
Start date: July, Reasons for nowcasting:
Hanoi is capital and administrative and politic center of Vietnam.
Evening thunderstorm caused heavy rain and flood for Hanoi urban area (1st Nov 2008 – historical flood, 12th July 2010, 20th July and 15th Aug )
Area: Hanoi capital
Focus phenomena: Thunderstorm, Heavy rain
Data:
Satellite images (MTSAT, FY2): about 15 minutes/image
3 reflectivity radars: Việt Trì, Phủ Liễn, Nội Bài
synoptic observations (every 3 hours or telephone (if required))
15 automatic rain-gauges (since Oct 2010)
Information Transmission to Public:
NCHMF Website
Radio channel (Voice of Vietnam – VOV) (live interview)
No actual supporting tool for forecaster in nowcasting!

20. First Challenge in 2010 1000 years Anniversary of Hanoi Captital
(01st – 10th October, 2010)
NCHMF and AMO coordinate implementation
Details:
15 automatic raingauges and 02 temporary AWSs in Ba Đình and Mỹ Đình areas
Test period: 20th Sep – 30th Sep, 2010
In normal conditions:
Warning issued every 6 hours
Information sent directly to Local Organization Committee via and fax
In thunderstorm/ heavy rain conditions:
Warning issued every hours
Information was published on NCHMF website and VOV radio channel also

21. Việt Trì radar’s image 01st Oct 2010

22. First Idea of Nowcasting Implementation
- Attending “Radar and Nowcasting Workshop” in Cairns, Australia, 1-4 Aug 2007 hosted by BoM and Gematronik
Working with Mr. Tom Yoshida, retired Meteorologist in charge of Guam Meteorology Department in 02 radar interpretation training workshop in Hanoi (2005 and 2008)
Nowcast experiment in 2010
2010 – 2012 Modernization Project of HMS on:
Observation network
automatic stations (focus on Hanoi area)
4 – 5 doppler radars (new and upgrade)
Telecommunication system
Data processing and archive system
Regional/ city NWP models
Forecasting Technology …
 Hopefully, all data will be available for operational system!
NCHMF need a tool for nowcasting!
 I suggested VHMS to use TITAN and/or TIFS

23. Related Projects VHMS and FMI project (PROMOSERV) on:
Maintenance and calibration of automatic weather stations,
use of radars,
and career development of personnel
VHMS and KMA project on:
Forecaster’s Analysis System (FAS) for Vietnam
Typhoon join-Research in which KMA support Vietnam TAPS-2 (Typhoon Analysis and Prediction System)
2010 – 2012 Modernization project of VHMS …

24. Suggestion for Next Steps
FMI did a good review and assess about current status of VHMS nowcasting system
FMI is going to do some training courses of radar using and interpreting in 2011
What should be done next?
More training with real events of Vietnam after modernization project (when radars, AWS, automatic raingauge and NWP products… are available)
Improve nowcasting system in Vietnam from National to Regional and even Provincial levels by setting up a easy-to-use system.
Radar data sharing between neighbour countries.

25. Thank you and Best wishes!
Anh hoi thao tai Cairn
Thank you and Best wishes!