JTOWER Corporation and MetroWeather Corporation are pleased to announce that they have opened the “Kashiwara Accuracy Verification Center,” which operates a communication tower owned by JTOWER in Kashiwara City, Osaka Prefecture, and verifies the accuracy of MetroWeather’s Doppler LIDAR. This is currently the largest Doppler LIDAR accuracy verification center in the world, and the first to be opened in Japan.
MetroWeather is researching and developing Doppler LIDAR, which performs highly accurate real-time wind observation. In order to solve social issues using Doppler LIDAR, we are currently participating in research and development projects with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Ministry of Defense, and are conducting joint research and demonstrations with various companies and research institutes both in Japan and overseas. In addition, as we enter the phase of promoting mass production of small, high-performance Doppler LIDAR, we have been working to open an accuracy verification center to regularly evaluate, verify, and check the operation of Doppler LIDAR.
Meanwhile, JTOWER provides infrastructure sharing services that enable telecommunications carriers to share their telecommunications equipment both indoors and outdoors. Outdoors, the company owns over 7,200 telecommunications towers nationwide (as of the end of September 2024) and is developing a “tower sharing business” that promotes shared use by telecommunications carriers. These telecommunications towers can be used for a variety of purposes, including as a place for mobile carriers to install base stations and antennas for network maintenance , as well as IoT-related equipment, disaster prevention radios, cameras, Wi-Fi, various sensors, etc.
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In March 2024, MetroWeather was selected for the PCA phase (Practical Application Research and Development [Late Stage]) of the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO)’s Deep Tech Startup Support Fund/Deep Tech Startup Support Project, and decided to use JTOWER’s communication tower for accuracy verification in preparation for mass production of Doppler LIDAR. Accuracy verification requires the preparation of a site for the Doppler LIDAR installation and the installation of multiple wind speed sensors at a certain height. Therefore, from the approximately 7,200 towers that JTOWER owns nationwide, we selected a tower in Kashiwara City, Osaka Prefecture, which meets the conditions of location, height, and site suitable for verification, and is also easily accessible from MetroWeather’s headquarters (Uji City, Kyoto Prefecture), and have been preparing to open an accuracy verification center.
By utilizing JTOWER’s existing towers, a large-scale accuracy verification center can be opened more efficiently without constructing new facilities. Furthermore, the environment will allow accuracy verification to be performed at any time, which will contribute to the progress of research and product development. JTOWER will also lead to expanded use of existing communication towers. In the future, the two companies will consider expanding the use of communication towers owned by JTOWER nationwide in order to further strengthen Metroweather’s organization.
JTOWER and MetroWeather will continue to strengthen their collaboration by expanding the operation of the Accuracy Verification Center and promoting the social implementation of Doppler LIDAR in a wide range of fields, thereby contributing to realizing safety and security around the world.
SOURCE: PRTimes
