1. What is COBRA?

2. Development purpose of COBRA

The COBRA is a next-generation weather radar capable of high-precision measurements of subtropical meteorological phenomena such as typhoons, meso-scale precipitation, and 3-D wind-speed structures. Our goal is to utilize COBRA in the development of meso-scale meteorological and hydrological observation applications to support commercial weather forecasting and data collection for disaster-prevention purposes.

Development of COBRA applications are as follows:

• - To improve the precision of precipitation estimation
• - To develop the algorithm for precipitation estimation and data-processing methods.
• - To combine COBRA with existing prediction systems.
• - To optimize the observation operation.

The system is expected to contribute to disaster prevention during the typhoon and rainy seasons, particularly in Okinawa.

The targets of observation are typhoons, Baiu fronts, meso-scale precipitation phenomena, and clear-air turbulence.