On October 13, the 16th typhoon of the year, Nangka, made landfall at Qionghai, in South China’s Hainan province. According to the China Meteorological Administration, a three-pronged, multi-platform observation study of the typhoon was undertaken, using ground-, ocean- and space-based assets.
The administration said that satellites, aircraft, drones and other observation vehicles obtained a raft of data, representing China’s largest typhoon monitoring experiment to date. Researchers organized three aircraft to simultaneously observe the internal ventral structure of the typhoon, and obtained high-resolution meteorological data at different levels, regions and stages as the typhoon made landfall. Additionally, airborne laser radar was harnessed to provide high-resolution data on wind field structures in the ventral internal circulation.
As the typhoon made landfall, rocket sounding and ozone sounding instruments were launched consecutively to measure the typhoon’s circulation structure and changes in its atmospheric and physical features. Then, on October 14, drones were employed to analyze the rainstorm that followed in the wake of typhoon, conducting direct observation combined with drop-down sounding observation experiments.
China’s Fengyun-4 satellites and Gaofen series satellites meanwhile conducted intensive observation of the typhoon area, with drones successfully obtaining complete observation data of offshore sea-atmosphere interface wind temperature, air pressure and humidity, as well as sea water temperature and salinity before and after the typhoon passed.