Strategic Infrastructure

Hydrometeorology & Early Warning

Hydrometeorology and early warning covers the monitoring and alerting infrastructure that anticipates hazard, including weather radar networks, meteorological and hydrological observing stations, seismic and tsunami monitoring networks, volcanic observatories and public warning and alerting systems. One of the capabilities of Social Infrastructure.

International families: 7,2912015 to 2024
Leading country: China1.1× the next
All families: 92khome filings included
Over five years: Rising2020 to 2024 against the five before

Year by year

Patent families by country of origin and the year of the earliest filing, 2000 to 2025; 2025 is a part year, still filling in. International families are those for which protection was sought beyond one country.

Volume

International patent families in the capability, by the year of the earliest filing.

Source: Global Institute for National Capability (GINC), 2026. Underlying patents from 107 patent offices, IFI CLAIMS and Google

Share by country

Each country's share of the year's international families, in per cent: the capability's five largest countries of origin, 2015 to 2024, and the rest of the world.

Source: Global Institute for National Capability (GINC), 2026. Underlying patents from 107 patent offices, IFI CLAIMS and Google

Country leaderboard

International patent families, 2015 to 2024, by country of origin. Growth compares the latest five full years with the five before.

Ten largest

China

United States

Japan

South Korea

Germany

France

Canada

United Kingdom

Taiwan

Netherlands

2,007

1,837

1,145

638

314

184

116

111


1	China	2,007	27.5%	4.4×	74,002
2	United States	1,837	25.2%	0.6×	3,602
3	Japan	1,145	15.7%	0.9×	3,816
4	South Korea	638	8.8%	1.3×	7,191
5	Germany	314	4.3%	0.7×	584
6	France	184	2.5%	0.8×	246
7	Canada	116	1.6%	0.9×	163
8	United Kingdom	111	1.5%	0.7×	147
9	Taiwan	95	1.3%	0.8×	247
10	Netherlands	78	1.1%	0.7×	98
11	Australia	78	1.1%	0.9×	112
12	Switzerland	63	0.9%	1.0×	72
13	India	62	0.9%	1.7×	125
14	Israel	61	0.8%	0.5×	74
15	Italy	60	0.8%	0.6×	131
16	Finland	50	0.7%	1.1×	52
17	Sweden	49	0.7%	0.7×	57
18	Singapore	33	0.5%	1.4×	40
19	Denmark	31	0.4%	0.6×	35
20	Norway	30	0.4%	0.5×	38
21	Austria	29	0.4%	0.5×	39
22	Spain	26	0.4%	0.9×	39
23	Türkiye	26	0.4%	3.3×	80
24	Ireland	22	0.3%	0.7×	29
25	Belgium	16	0.2%	0.2×	18
26	Russia	13	0.2%	0.9×	293
27	Poland	13	0.2%	0.6×	35
28	Brazil	9	0.1%	0.5×	34
29	Malaysia	9	0.1%	0.1×	18
30	Saudi Arabia	8	0.1%	0.6×	16
31	Portugal	8	0.1%	1.7×	8
32	Luxembourg	7	0.1%	1.3×	9
33	South Africa	5	0.1%	0.3×	5
34	New Zealand	4	0.1%	0.3×	10
35	Mexico	3	0.0%	0.5×	26
36	Hong Kong	2	0.0%	1.0×	11
37	Cayman Islands	1	0.0%	0.0×	2
38	Czechia	1	0.0%	–	8
39	Liechtenstein	1	0.0%	0.0×	1
40	Hungary	1	0.0%	0.0×	4

Applicants

The largest applicants by international patent families, 2015 to 2024: across the world, then within each of the five countries with the most families in Hydrometeorology & Early Warning. Names are as held in the source and are not consolidated across subsidiaries.

Global

7,291 international families

MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORP · Japan

HONEYWELL INT INC · United States

NEC CORP · Japan

PING AN TECH SHENZHEN CO LTD · China

TOYOTA MOTOR CO LTD · Japan

TOYOTA MOTOR CORP · Japan

123

121

110

China

2,007 international families

PING AN TECH SHENZHEN CO LTD

SUTENG INNOVATION TECH CO LTD

SHENZHEN INST OF ADV TECH CAS

CHINA INST WATER RESOURCES & HYDROPOWER RES

HUAWEI TECH CO LTD

UNIV HOHAI

United States

1,837 international families

HONEYWELL INT INC

FORD GLOBAL TECH LLC

ROCKWELL COLLINS INC

IBM

ROSEMOUNT AEROSPACE INC

PSOMAGEN INC

121

Japan

1,145 international families

MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORP

NEC CORP

TOYOTA MOTOR CO LTD

TOYOTA MOTOR CORP

FURUNO ELECTRIC CO

PANASONIC IP MAN CO LTD

121

101

South Korea

638 international families

NAT INSTITUTE OF METEOROLOGICAL SCIENCES

HYUNDAI MOTOR CO LTD

SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO LTD

KOREA METEOROLOGICAL ADMINISTRATION

LG ELECTRONICS INC

KIA MOTORS CORP

Germany

China

Japan

South Korea

Germany

5,511

1,782

1,627

909

600

Crosswalk

How Hydrometeorology & Early Warning is matched to the patent classifications. The entries below were chosen for it; each stands for itself and everything beneath it in the scheme, 39 Cooperative entries in all. A patent family counts when any of its codes, in either scheme and at any office, falls under one of them. Codes since retired are placed under the entries that replaced them.

Entry	Title in the scheme	Why it is chosen	CPC codes	IPC codes	Documents
G01W	Meteorology	Meteorological instruments and weather forecasting	16	14	73,975
G01S13/95	Radar or analogous systems specially adapted for specific applications for meteorological use	Weather radar	6	1	10,318
G01V1/01	Measuring or predicting earthquakes	Measuring and predicting earthquakes	1	1	4,392
G01C13/00	Surveying specially adapted to open water, e.g. sea, lake, river or canal	Surveying of open water: tides, rivers and levels	5	1	17,113
G08B21/10	Alarms for ensuring the safety of persons responsive to calamitous events, e.g. tornados or earthquakes	Alarms for earthquakes, storms and other calamities	1	1	20,811
G08B27/00	Alarm systems in which the alarm condition is signalled from a central station to a plurality of substations	Alarms sent from a central station to many receivers	6	1	13,149
H04H20/59	Arrangements specially adapted for specific applications, e.g. for traffic information or for mobile receivers for emergency or urgency	Emergency and urgency broadcasting	1	1	6,027
Y02A90/10	Information and communication technologies [ICT] supporting adaptation to climate change, e.g. for weather forecasting or climate simulation	Tagged ICT for weather forecasting and climate simulation	1	none	158,832
Y02A10/40	Controlling or monitoring, e.g. of flood or hurricane; Forecasting, e.g. risk assessment or mapping	Tagged flood and storm monitoring and forecasting	1	none	23,139

CPC and IPC codes are the codes in use on patent documents, at any office, that fall under the entry. Documents is the larger of the two schemes' counts of documents carrying one of them. An entry with no IPC codes can be told apart only in the Cooperative scheme.

The Cooperative codes in use that count towards Hydrometeorology & Early Warning: 38 codes on 296,101 documents. The full crosswalk is in the cpc-to-capability.csv download.

Code	Title	Under entry	How placed	Documents
Y02A90/10	Information and communication technologies [ICT] supporting adaptation to climate change, e.g. for weather forecasting or climate simulation	Y02A90/10	In the scheme	158,832
Y02A10/40	Controlling or monitoring, e.g. of flood or hurricane; Forecasting, e.g. risk assessment or mapping	Y02A10/40	In the scheme	23,139
G01W1/10	Devices for predicting weather conditions	G01W	In the scheme	15,127
G08B21/10	Alarms for ensuring the safety of persons responsive to calamitous events, e.g. tornados or earthquakes	G08B21/10	In the scheme	12,845
G01W1/02	Instruments for indicating weather conditions by measuring two or more variables, e.g. humidity, pressure, temperature, cloud cover or wind speed	G01W	In the scheme	10,302
G01W1/14	Rainfall or precipitation gauges	G01W	In the scheme	8,521
G01W1/00	Meteorology	G01W	In the scheme	6,867
G01C13/00	Surveying specially adapted to open water, e.g. sea, lake, river or canal	G01C13/00	In the scheme	5,074
G01S13/95	Radar or analogous systems specially adapted for specific applications for meteorological use	G01S13/95	In the scheme	4,628
H04H20/59	Arrangements specially adapted for specific applications, e.g. for traffic information or for mobile receivers for emergency or urgency	H04H20/59	In the scheme	4,604
G01V1/01	Measuring or predicting earthquakes	G01V1/01	In the scheme	4,392
G08B27/00	Alarm systems in which the alarm condition is signalled from a central station to a plurality of substations	G08B27/00	In the scheme	3,455
G01C13/008	Surveying specially adapted to open water, e.g. sea, lake, river or canal measuring depth of open water	G01C13/00	In the scheme	3,196
G08B27/001	Signalling to an emergency team, e.g. firemen	G08B27/00	In the scheme	2,907
G01W1/08	Adaptations of balloons, missiles, or aircraft for meteorological purposes; Radiosondes	G01W	In the scheme	2,799
G08B27/006	Alarm systems in which the alarm condition is signalled from a central station to a plurality of substations with transmission via telephone network	G08B27/00	In the scheme	2,479
G01S13/951	Radar or analogous systems specially adapted for specific applications for meteorological use ground based	G01S13/95	In the scheme	2,156
G01W2203/00	Real-time site-specific personalized weather information, e.g. nowcasting	G01W	In the scheme	1,993
G08B27/005	Alarm systems in which the alarm condition is signalled from a central station to a plurality of substations with transmission via computer network	G08B27/00	In the scheme	1,962
G01S13/953	Radar or analogous systems specially adapted for specific applications for meteorological use mounted on aircraft	G01S13/95	In the scheme	1,839
G01W2201/00	Weather detection, monitoring or forecasting for establishing the amount of global warming	G01W	In the scheme	1,780
G08B27/008	Alarm systems in which the alarm condition is signalled from a central station to a plurality of substations with transmission via TV or radio broadcast	G08B27/00	In the scheme	1,670
G01W1/06	Instruments for indicating weather conditions by measuring two or more variables, e.g. humidity, pressure, temperature, cloud cover or wind speed giving a combined indication of weather conditions	G01W	In the scheme	1,662
G01C13/002	Measuring the movement of open water	G01C13/00	In the scheme	1,573
G01W1/18	Testing or calibrating meteorological apparatus	G01W	In the scheme	1,440
G01W2001/006	Main server receiving weather information from several sub-stations	G01W	In the scheme	1,405
G01W1/16	Measuring atmospheric potential differences, e.g. due to electrical charges in clouds	G01W	In the scheme	1,296
G01W1/12	Sunshine duration recorders	G01W	In the scheme	1,268
G01W2001/003	Clear air turbulence detection or forecasting, e.g. for aircrafts	G01W	In the scheme	1,025
G01W1/04	Instruments for indicating weather conditions by measuring two or more variables, e.g. humidity, pressure, temperature, cloud cover or wind speed giving only separate indications of the variables measured	G01W	In the scheme	1,003
G01C13/004	Measuring the movement of open water vertical movement	G01C13/00	In the scheme	794
G01W1/17	Catathermometers for measuring "cooling value" related either to weather conditions or to comfort of other human environment	G01W	In the scheme	706
G08B27/003	Signalling to neighbouring houses	G08B27/00	In the scheme	676
G01S13/958	Theoretical aspects	G01S13/95	In the scheme	623
G01C13/006	Measuring the movement of open water horizontal movement	G01C13/00	In the scheme	582
G01S13/956	Radar or analogous systems specially adapted for specific applications for meteorological use mounted on ship or other platform	G01S13/95	In the scheme	565
G01S13/955	Radar or analogous systems specially adapted for specific applications for meteorological use mounted on satellite	G01S13/95	In the scheme	507
G01W1/11	Weather houses or other ornaments for indicating humidity	G01W	In the scheme	409

Match: Direct

The capability is itself a technology or a kind of physical system, and the classification names it. G01V1/01 is a recent entry with little IPC use, so older seismic monitoring patents sit unseparated in G01V1/00. The crosswalk is a first pass that nobody has reviewed.

Hydrometeorology & Early Warning

Year by year

Volume

Share by country

Country leaderboard

Ten largest

Applicants

Global

China

United States

Japan

South Korea

Germany

Similar capabilities

Crosswalk

Other capabilities in Social Infrastructure