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A satellite image provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows the size and intensity of Typhoon Haiyan, one of the most powerful to hit the Asia-Pacific region
China and the US are collaborating to set up a mechanism to predict extreme weather patterns.
On Monday, Beijing media said that the Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, in eastern China’s Shandong Province, would join with the US National Center for Atmosphere Research and Texas A&M University to establish what will be called the International Laboratory for High-Resolution Earth System Prediction (ILHRESP).
The lab is more necessary than ever, Chinese scientists have said, because climate change has already shown an increase in extreme weather patterns, and many meteorologists predict a surge in such anomalies in the near future.
These include heat waves, hurricanes, storms, flooding, melting ice caps and rising sea levels.
With offices both in China and the US, the lab will be able to predict and monitor extreme weather on both the regional and global scales.
This is not the first time Chinese and US scientists have collaborated on a meteorological level.
The US Environmental Protection Agency has been visiting China to help the authorities there with reliable data processing to help deal with the poor air quality in several cities.
In April 2013, China and the US announced they would jointly reduce the production and consumption of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), the type of gases used as coolants in refrigerators and air conditioners.
The cooperation between the two strongest economies in the world could impact what measures cities enact in their air pollution fight and what legislation is passed to reduce harmful toxins from the air.
The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies
