"Happy New Year from Bengkulu and Happy Rain Coming!"

After 2 weeks off from Bengkulu, I came back here again for continuing the radar and balloon observation. The situation was slightly changed from last month, it was dry and less rainfall last month but when I came here three days ago, the condition much more humid, cloudy, even rain like today. We just have rain with strong wind around 11 AM today.
During the observation at BMKG Fatmawati, young observer come here to study about rawinsonde launching, they are university students from Bengkulu University. One of the BMKG Staff teach them how to operate the system and launch the balloon, they look happy, enthusiasm, and eager to learn. They may become new scientist in the future! (Credit photos by Dr. Wu). RS.

"Farewell to Indonesia"

Forty days passed swiftly by since R/V MIRAI entered Indonesian EEZ, and today she left it. We have made lots of observations during the period, including more than 350 radiosonde soundings, more than 220 CTD casts, more than 220 TurboMAP casts, and nearly 9,000 volume scans of weather radar. Luckily, we performed almost all of the observation items we had planned, and we completed 3-hourly routine observations without missing data at the station point. Our final radiosonde launch was done in the presence of the captain and security officer, only 2 hours before the leaving, which was successful as usual. I, as the chief scientist of this research cruise, am most grateful to all of the researchers, technicians, and vessel crew from the captain on down for their great efforts. (Satoru Yokoi)