Taiwan's Gogoro expands battery swapping network to the Philippines.

Taiwan successfully launched its first domestically developed meteorological satellite, Triton, on Sunday. The satellite, carried by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Triton is expected to significantly enhance Taiwan's weather forecasting capabilities and contribute to global meteorological research.

The launch marked a major milestone for Taiwan's space program. Triton, officially named "Formosat-7R/Triton," will primarily focus on observing and collecting data related to radio occultation, a technique used to measure atmospheric parameters. This data will be used to improve the accuracy of weather forecasts, particularly for typhoon and heavy rain predictions.

Triton is equipped with a Global Navigation Satellite System Radio Occultation (GNSS-RO) payload, which will collect atmospheric data by measuring how GNSS signals bend as they pass through the Earth's atmosphere. This information will be valuable for studying atmospheric temperature, humidity, and electron density.

The satellite is projected to collect approximately 4,000 pieces of atmospheric data daily, a substantial increase compared to the 2,000 pieces gathered by the six Formosat-7 constellation satellites currently in orbit. The development of Triton involved collaboration between the National Space Organization (NSPO), Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau (CWB), and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The launch of Triton is anticipated to improve forecasting accuracy for typhoons, which frequently impact Taiwan, by up to 10%. The enhanced forecasting capability will be crucial for providing early warnings and minimizing the impact of these severe weather events.

The successful launch of Triton represents a significant advancement in Taiwan's space technology and its commitment to improving weather forecasting and contributing to international meteorological research.