Fujitsu today announced the renewal of three critical systems for the Japan Meteorological Agency to allow them to operate on the “JMA Information System Infrastructure,” which serves as the new central virtualization platform for all agency-managed meteorological systems. The systems successfully integrated onto the platform since its inception include the JMA’s regional meteorological observation system, “AMeDAS”(1), weather information transmission system, “ADESS”(2), and Ocean Information Processing System(3). The JMA initiated operations of the new platform system in March 2021.
By shifting key systems to the platform, the JMA plans to reduce operational load and costs and improve the speed of system development, while further strengthening its meteorological services by accelerating the use of data for disaster prevention and mitigation, and improving the accuracy of weather forecasts.
Fujitsu’s central role in the digital transformation of the JMA’s systems represents an important contribution to the accurate and rapid provision of vital meteorological and disaster prevention information, and ultimately the realization of a safer, more sustainable society.
The Japan Meteorological Agency not only collects and analyzes observational data on weather, but also earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, and oceans from meteorological organizations both domestically and internationally. The JMA leverages this data to offer important disaster prevention and weather information to the media, the public, and disaster prevention organizations allowing it to contribute to areas like traffic safety and to disaster mitigation measures.
In addition to the AMeDAS, ADESS, and Ocean Information Processing System built by Fujitsu, the JMA has established systems for individual operations. In anticipation of possible large-scale disasters, the JMA has divided and operated its systems between two stations in the East and West of Japan (4). With the growing sophistication of the technology and data-collection capabilities, however, the JMA has faced issues including increased operating costs, more complex operational management, longer development periods for new systems, and delays in adapting to the latest technologies.
To help address these challenges, the JMA introduced the central Information System Infrastructure in March 2020 to consolidate and integrate the various business systems that Fujitsu has built onto a virtualized platform. Since October 2020, each business system has been gradually shifted onto this platform, and with the completion of work to shift the three large scale systems, operations of the platform have commenced.
The JMA Information System Infrastructure makes it possible to integrate the operation and management system of individual systems, reduce costs, implement upgrades, and standardize security criteria to stably deliver 24 hour, non-stop operations. Because the systems are operated on the same platform, the development period for new functions and systems can be shortened considerably, and individual systems can be easily linked with others to accelerate data utilization.
