Sunday, May 18, 2014

Reaction Paper: Meteorology - Cheng, Steven Matthew


Reaction Paper: Meteorology 
Cheng, Steven Matthew 2010-11134

We experience different weathers in our lives; hence, its everyday presence makes it a very interesting topic to learn. I am also quite fascinated in the topic since our laboratory has been characterizing the components from a PAGASA radar that was used. During elementary, it was taught that there are many different types of clouds and it has become very impractical for me. However, because of the speaker I was happy to know that there are actually only three types of clouds and all the others can be categorized into one of them. Many of our common complains and misconceptions about PAGASA were cleared. When there is a typhoon signal, it doesn’t actually mean that the area will experience large rains and winds for the whole time the signal is raised. It is only an approximation of what will actually happen within a fixed time. There were also many meteorological jargons that have been explained such as fronts, hurricanes, typhoons, coriolis force, etc. I think that it is necessary to know other reliable sources for weather information. Like PAGASA, it only reports a typhoon only when it enters the Philippine Area of Responsibility. I am also proud that only at UP can you study meteorology in Southeast Asia.

It is a very sad fact that our government doesnt give enough support to our own meteorologist. Our society gives very little importance to what meteorologist/PAGASA does; hence, many of our senior weather forecasters go to other countries instead. On the other hand, with the current media, people start to understand and learn more of the weather disturbances that happen. In weather reports, the forecaster now explains the common jargons (e.g. ITCZ and init factor) in simple terms. They make efforts to reach out to more people; thus, we must do our part in trying to understand what they are trying to tell us. It is important to note also that currently there are many unusualoccurrences in our weather. There are now typhoons hitting the Mindanao area and one possible cause is climate change. We must be aware and responsible that each action we make contributes to what the weather might be tomorrow.

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