The National Centre for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting (NCHF) has been connected to the Vietnam Research and Education Network (VinaREN) since 2006, which has significantly helped the centre improve the quality of weather forecasting and disaster warnings.

The National Centre for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting (NCHF) has been connected to the Vietnam Research and Education Network (VinaREN) since 2006, which has significantly helped the centre improve the quality of weather forecasting and disaster warnings.

According to NCHF, the network became a key channel in collecting and exploiting data sources from international forecast centres. 

At present, VinaREN includes six network operation centres (NOC), connecting more than 60 member networks from hundreds of research institutes, universities, scientific organisations, data centres and hospitals in 11 provinces and cities nationwide. 

VinaREN allows Vietnam’s community of researchers and educators to make high-speed connections with over 50 million colleagues working at more than 8,000 centres worldwide, helping them share information on science and technology and promoting cooperation through remote education and health check-ups, grid computing, cloud computing, weather forecasting and climate change response. 

Dr. Nguyen Hong Van from the VinaREN management centre said through using the high-speed network, several units operating in hydrometeorology forecasting frequently connect with data centres in the US, Canada and the Asia-Pacific region to gather data on global models. 

At present, NCHF also exploits some sources of remote sensing observation data such as data from the Multi Functional Transport satellite (MTSAT) and the Atmospheric Motion Vectors (AMV) satellite via VinaREN. The move helps improve the operation of regional weather forecast models and meets the demands of short and medium-term forecasts. 

It also supports internal and external research activities in sharing data related to hydro-meteorological and climate change forecasts, especially storm projections over the East Sea. 

According to experts in the field, VinaREN provides access to more sources of data and useful referential products for forecasters, especially in short and medium-term forecasts. 

VinaREN plays a key role in collecting data sources in NCHF. Total volume of data exploited via the network is estimated to account for more than 90 percent of data collected from all sources by the centre. 

Since 2011, the VinaREN management centre has teamed up with agencies and organisations operating in the fields of hydrology and environment to build a network for collecting and sharing data from remote sensing satellites with the aim of responding to climate change. 

Thanks to VinaREN, the cost of purchasing remote sensing images to serve teaching and study reduced remarkably as many images can be downloaded for free from satellites in under an hour.