XN000022-1997-02-28 — Page 22

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The Quarterly Bulletin also contains other articles including official assessments of banking and monetary environment during the quarter ending December 1996.

The publication, which is on sale at the Government Sales Centre, may also be ordered from the Press and Publications Section of the HKMA.

End

HK & China set up network of automatic weather stations

Members of the Electronic Maintenance Team (EMT) of the Royal Observatory, under the leadership of Mr Ng Kin-fai, held a meeting right after the Chinese New Year holidays in preparation for the maintenance of the automatic weather station (AWS) at Huangmaozhou.

The members were very excited about this task as it was not just a routine maintenance but a complete renovation of the AWS by installing state-of-the-art hardware and software, both are products of months of hard work by the EMT members. Led by Mr. Leung Yum-fai, they will go to Huangmaozhou sometime this Spring.

Huangmaozhou is a remote island in the South China coastal waters about 50 kilometres southwest of Hong Kong. The AWS there was jointly set up by the Royal Observatory and the Guangdong Meteorological Bureau in 1985.

Years ago, Huangmaozhou was only accessible by boat. Now, with the construction of a helipad, the island can be reached by helicopter taking off from Zhuhai, Guangdong.

Apart from this station, the Royal Observatory and the Guangdong Meteorological Bureau had jointly established two more AWSS, one at Tuoning Dao to the east and another at Neilingding Dao to the west of Hong Kong. Both were recently completed in 1996.

The joint project this year includes the construction of an AWS on Dangan Dao, an island to the south of Hong Kong. This will be the fourth AWS at the Pearl River Estuary. Site selection, communication test and civil work will start soon. Installation work is expected to commence in the middle of this year.