Tokyo, February 10, 1998 -- Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (president: Takashi Kitaoka), through Mitsubishi Corporation (Hong Kong) Limited, has received an order from the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (IIKSAR) to design, manufacture, supply, deliver, install, test, and commission an S-band Klystron Doppler Weather Radar System for the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO). This order is a replacement of one of the two radars which HKO currently operates.

This order represents Mitsubishi Electric's third project involving S-band Doppler Weather Radar in the Asian market following the Singapore Changi Airport project and the Kuala Lumpur International Airport project.

The state-of-the-art radar system for the HKO, which is scheduled to be commissioned in January 1999, will have the following features:

1. Equipped with the latest developed digital receiver, a highly stable klyston-type transmitter and a large 8.5-metre antenna, the system will be capable of real-time detection and tracking of areas of precipitation, thunderstorms, tropical cyclones and other weather phenomena. Rainfall intensity can be determined accurately within a radius of at least 500 kilometers and wind velocity within at least 250 kilometers.

2. The radar station will be unmanned and the system will be highly automatic, capable of being controlled and monitored remotely at the HKO Headquarters.

3. Dual-Doppler processing for deriving real-time horizontal winds is the first in the world in terms of operational weather forecasting as well as numerical weather prediction.

4. 3-dimensional display of radar images in animation, a new and innovative method for analysts of radar data, will also be a key feature of the system.

The System will provide real-time information for tracking and estimating the intensity of tropical cyclones. The 3-dimensional display of tropical cyclone information will be the world's first operational system with such capabilities. It will open up a new era in the observation of tropical cyclones by radars. This new system will enhance the accuracy of tropical cyclone forecasts and warnings.

The equipment of the System will be located at three (3) sites, namely, the Radar Station at Tai Mo Shan around 950 meters above sea level, the HKO Headquarters and the Airport Meteorological Office at the new airport at Chek Lap Kok.