Chinese surveying and mapping work will produce better meteorological services as the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) signed a cooperative agreement with the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping of China (SBSM) on Tuesday.

The SBSM will enhance the precision of its geographic data provided to the CMA from previous 1:250000 scale (1 mm on the map equals to 250 meters in actual distance) to 1:50000 (1 mm on the map equals to 50 meters in actual distance).

On the other hand, the CMA promised to offer meteorological services for China's big national surveying and mapping projects, including surveying and mapping of the country's western region, offshore islands and reefs.

The more precise geographic data are believed to help the meteorological agency to better analyze weather incidents in more specific areas and design plans to minimize weather-resulted disasters such as landslides or floods.

Li Jiming, vice director of National Meteorological Information Center (NMIC), said that the meteorological services from the CMA contain weather forecast, climate analysis and basic meteorological data such as temperature, humidity, direction and speed of wind, visibility in the target areas under surveying and mapping.

Li said that the services would help Chinese surveying and mapping staff to select appropriate time and weather to conduct their work.

Peng Zhenzhong, vice director of National Geomatic Center, said surveying and mapping work had strict requirements on weather conditions. Take airborne photography, a most frequently used practice in surveying and mapping for example, too much clouds or low visibility would greatly affect the efficiency and quality of surveying and mapping. Extremely bad weather in desert or on the sea may even pose threat to the lives of working staff.

The CMA and SBSM will also further their cooperation in developing models and tools for information analysis.

(Xinhua News Agency July 25, 2007)