HMEI Newsletter - FEBRUARY 2010   
      

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In this newsletter:

Report - HMEI Annual General Meeting will be held at the 90th AMS Meeting, in  Atlanta, GA, USA, January 2010

Report - HMEI Members at the  90th AMS Meeting, Atlanta, GA, USA, January 2010

Report - Intergovernmental Meeting for the High-level Taskforce for the Global Framework for Climate Services, Geneva January 2010

WMO-BIPM Workshop on Measurement Challenges for Global Observation Systems for Climate Change Monitoring, Geneva, March/April, 2010

Update- First Conference of Ministers Responsible for Meteorology in Africa, Nairobi, Kenya,  April 2010

Update - Regional Association V (South-West Pacific) - 15th session (XV-RA V), Bali, Indonesia, April/May 2010

Update - METEOREX 2010

HMEI Participation in CIMO Guide on Lightning Location

Brief overview of OGC standards by Chris Little, OGC Meteorology & Oceanography Domain Working Group

 New COST Actions

Opportunities for Members

Upcoming Intercomparisons

Upcoming WMO Meetings and Workshops

Upcoming Conferences and Exhibition/Sponsorship Opportunities

Other Conferences and Event Links


Report - HMEI Annual General Meeting will be held at the 90th AMS Meeting, in Atlanta, GA, USA, on 19 January 2010
During the 90th meeting of the AMS the HMEI Annual General Meeting was held at 8am on Tuesday
, 19 January 2010 in Room B204 of the Georgia World Congress Center Atlanta, GA, USA. Dr Fred Branski gave a talk updating meeting participants on the current WIGOS status.
The Minutes of this meeting are below.

Forty-three people attended the General Assembly, including both HMEI members and other friends of the Association. Please see the list of people in attendance at the end of this report.

Opening of the General Assembly
The HMEI Chairman, Mr Ben Dieterink, opened the meeting at 8.00am. He welcomed all members and visitors to this meeting in Atlanta. He made a brief statement about the problems and issues faced by all manufacturers during 2009 as a result of the economic downturn, but felt that 2010 would be a better year for all manufacturers. He stated that new opportunities will arise and that there will be new issues to resolve, but that 2010 looked like being a good year.

Mr Dieterink then advised the General Assembly of a new publication of direct relevance that has just been issued. This is the Meteorological Technology International published by UKIP Media and Events Ltd. Mr Dieterink advised the meeting that this was a quality magazine, issued twice a year that may be of interest to members.

Acceptance of Minutes of previous meeting

Mr Dieterink advised that the minutes of the previous General Assembly, held in Phoenix, Arizona on 13 January 2009, had been sent to all members and included in the HMEI Newsletter. Mr Dieterink also advised copies of the previous meeting were also available at the current meeting. Mr Dieterink proposed that the minutes be accepted as a true account of that meeting. Mr Rémy Pépin from Modem proposed this motion and Mr Andy McDonald from Vaisala seconded this proposal. This was passed unanimously.

Audit for 2008
The Chairman presented the 2008 audit to the General Assembly on behalf of the association’s Swiss auditor. The auditor stated that no discrepancies had been found and that the associations accounting records and financial statements comply with Swiss law and with the association’s Articles of Association. He also advised that the association has an accumulated benefit at the end of 2008 of CHF 20,621.51. Mr Bryce Ford from Lockheed Martin proposed that the audit be accepted and that the auditor be thanked for his work. This was seconded by Mr Brian day from Campbell Canada and this was passes unanimously by the meeting.

Membership Issues
Mr Dieterink advised the meeting that the association now had 98 members from 22 countries. He announced that six new members had joined the association in 2009, namely:
ATACO – Czech Republic
THEODOR FRIEDRICHS - Germany
COROBOR SYSTÈMES - France
Zhuzhou Research & Design Institute of Rubber & Plastic - China
MTECH Systems Pty. Ltd - Australia
WeatherBug – USA

These six new members were welcomed to the association.

Mr Dieterink advised that two companies resigned during 2009:
MPS SYSTEM - Slovakia
COHERENT TECHNOLOGIES - USA

Financial Statement for 2009 and Budget for 2010
The Chairman presented the unaudited 2009 financial statement of the Association, and advised that there was a positive reserve of approximately CHF18,000 at the end of 2009. The slight decrease in the reserve from 2008 to 2009 was explained by increased travel expenses in 2009, the purchase of some computing hardware, and particularly by synchronising all membership subscriptions to start in January of each year.

The budget for 2010 was presented. This showed expected expenses of CHF 79,000 and expected income of CHF 83,000. The meeting expressed is satisfaction with the projected budget. The meeting also stated that any reserves should not be used for normal operating expenses of the association.

Elections
The Chairman announced that at this meeting it is necessary to elect a new Chairman and a new Vice Chairman of the General Assembly, and several new Councillors to replace those whose terms have expired.

Mr Dieterink advised the assembly that no nominations had been received for the position of Chairman of HMEI. Mr Dieterink advised that he was prepared to stay on in an interim capacity until a new Chairman could be found. The General Assembly thanked Mr Dieterink for offering to stay on, and as there were no objections to this proposal, it was endorsed unanimously by the General Assembly. This news was greeted with applause from the floor. Mr Randolph Ware suggested that an enticement to pay for the Chairman’s travel might elicit people to nominate for this position. The interim Chairman noted however that as most HMEI meetings were held in conjunction with international exhibitions, travel costs to HMEI meetings were normally very small.

The meeting was advised that the term of the Vice Chairman, Mr Jan Hörhammer, had expired. The meeting expressed its appreciation to Mr Hörhammer for all his valuable work for HMEI over many years, including his help in setting up the association Articles and Rules, development and hosting of the HMEI website, and many other activities.

The meeting was advised that only one nomination had been received for the position of Vice Chairman, namely Mr Andy McDonald from Vaisala. Mr McDonald introduced himself to the meeting. The meeting unanimously accepted Mr McDonald as the new Vice Chairman of HMEI.

The election of Councillors was the next item. For the General Assembly to vote in new Councillors a quorum is required, namely 50% of the total number of weighted votes of members. The total umber of weighted votes of members is 186, and the number of weighted votes of members present was 99. Thus a quorum was present.

The Chairman advised that the current Council consists of 10 members, and that the terms of five Councillors have expired. The Chairman noted that Councillors often do not have much time to devote to HMEI activities as they have their normal day jobs to maintain. The Chairman proposed that to assist HMEI grow it was necessary for Council members to take on additional tasks. The Chairman proposed four specific areas that need active work by the Council:
• Public Relations and Publications
• HMEI involvement in external agency meetings, including WMO
• Review of HMEI Rules of Procedure and Articles of Association
• Membership issues, including recruitment

The Chairman proposed that the new Council should be created with the above four working groups, and that each group would be required to prepare a work plan including objectives, and include dates of expected completion of tasks. It was stated that such working groups within the Council would make for more transparency of activities to the membership. It was also stated that these working groups would assist the Executive Secretary by giving him guidance in the performance of his tasks.

The Chairman suggested that each working group should consist of 3 or 4 people, and that it was therefore necessary to increase the Council size to about 12 to 16 members. The Chairman noted that although this appeared to be a large number for an association of our size, this was not necessarily so, as it gives many members the ability to work on promoting and enhancing the role of HMEI.

The Chairman proposed that the first step to formation of this new Council was to synchronise the terms of the continuing five Council members to bring them into line with the terms of the to-be newly elected Council members, namely 2014. As there were no objections to this proposal, it was passed unanimously by the meeting. The Chairman advised that one of the five continuing Councillors, Mr Lu Hui Guo, had retired and that he has been replaced on Council by Ms Li Qingjun from the same company.

The Chairman advised that three retiring Councillors, Mr Hasegawa, Mr Rissland and Mr Mazurek had re-nominated for another term on the Council. In addition five new nominations for council had been received, namely;
Laurent Sauvage – Leosphere
Brian Day – Campbell Canada
Randolph Ware – Radiometrics
Bill Conway – WDT
Scott McLaughlin – DeTect

Together with the Chairman and Vice Chairman of HMEI, this would result in a Council of 15 members, The meeting unanimously proposed and accepted that the new Council should consist of 15 members, and that the all the nominations received be accepted for the new Council. The meeting also requested that the new Council create the working groups discussed and to begin work immediately.

Activities during 2009 and anticipated events 2010
The meeting was advised that HMEI attended 17 meetings in 2009, compared to 13 meetings attended in 2008, as well as attending several exhibitions during 2009. Reports on these events appeared in the bimonthly Newsletters and are also on the HMEI website. The meeting was advised of the following main meetings and exhibitions in 2009:
• CBS-XIV, Technical Conference and Exhibition, Dubrovnik, Croatia, 23-25 March 2009
• GCOS/GRUAN Implementation-Coordination Meeting (ICM-1), Norman, OK, USA, 2-4 March 2009
• 5th Session of the JCOMM Ship Observations Team (SOT), Geneva, Switzerland, 18-22 May 2009
• CIMO ET on Surface-based Instrument Intercomparisons and IOC on Surface-based Intercomparisons, Sestola, Italy, 22 - 27 June 2009
• Regional Association 6 (RA-VI) (Europe) 15th Session, Brussels, Belgium, 16-24 September 2009
• CHy Project on Performance of Flow Measurement Instruments and Techniques, Geneva, 18-19 November

The meeting was also advised on the major anticipated activities planned for 2010;
• First Conference of Ministers Responsible for Meteorology in Africa, Nairobi, Kenya, April 2010
• Regional Association V (South-West Pacific) - 15th session (XV-RA V), Bali, Indonesia, 30 April-6 May 2010
• Intercomparison of Radiosondes, Yanjiang, China, 12-31 July 2010
• METEOREX 2010, Helsinki, 30 Aug – 2 Sept 2010
• ERAD 2010, Romania, 6-10 September 2010
• EMS, Zurich, 13-17 September 2010

The meeting requested further information on the exhibition planned to be held in conjunction with the African Ministers Conference in Nairobi. Mr Dieterink advised that no additional information other than the dates of the event were yet available, but that this was indeed a very important opportunity for members wanting to be involved in the African market. The meeting requested the Executive Secretary to advise members at the earliest opportunity of exhibition information and details on the exhibition.

HMEI Calendar
The Chairman presented a proposal for a HMEI desk calendar to be produced as a promotional tool. The meeting was shown a prototype of such a calendar, and was also advised of the anticipated costs of producing the calendar. Some discussion ensued, but as time was running out, further discussion was not possible.

Guest Speaker
Dr Fred Branski, President of the WMO Commission for Basic Systems, gave a presentation entitled ‘WIGOS Status’.
This presentation was well received with acclamation. This presentation is available here.

Other Business
There being no other business, the meeting was closed at 9.25am.

Meeting Attendees
HMEI Members:

Campbell Scientific Canada – Brian Day
Campbell Scientific US – Alan Hinckley
Climatronics – David Katz
DeTect – Scott McLaughlin
Droplet Measurement Technologies – Darrel Baumgardner
EEC – Denise River
EEC – Chris Goode
EEC – Allyson Turnbull
EEC – Mike Ueltzen
EKO USA – Tsukasa Kobashi
ES&S – Colin Cooks
ES&S – Bob Wright
GAMIC – Malcolm Malkomes
Geonor – James Brylawski
Geonor – Ivar Fredriksen
Gill Instruments – Mark Terrell
Intermet – Fred Clowney
Kipp & Zonen – Ben Dieterink
L.M. Sippican – Tom Curran
L.M. MS2 – Bryce Ford
Leosphere – Laurent Sauvage
Leosphere – Alexandre Sauvage
Takashi Saito - Meisei
Metstar – Fred Brenner
Oriental – Yuji Hayashi
Oriental – Naomi Tamura
Oriental – Lloyd Anderson
OTT – Kurt Nemeth
Rémy Pépin - Modem
Proton – Ed Figleman
R.M. Young – Tom Young
Selex – Ulrich Nellen
Sumitomo – Yoshihiro Imagawa
Sutron – Ted Soto
Sutron Ashish Raval
Sutron – Raul McQuivey
The Republic Group – Robert Rissland
Totex- Aki Nakazato
Vaisala – Andy McDonald
Weatherbug – Jim Anderson

Guests :
NOAA/NWS – Dr Fred Branski
Koshin Electronics – Hisatoshi Kimura
WICS - Shu Okadu

HMEI Secretariat:
Executive Secretary – Bruce Sumner

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Report - HMEI Members at the 90th AMS Meeting, , Atlanta, GA, USA, 17-21 January 2010
HMEI had 35 members who exhibited at AMS this year. Photos as follows (click to enlarge):

Aanderra

All Weather

Baron

Beijing Metstar

Belfort

Campbell Scientific

Climatronics

Davis Instruments

Degreane Horizon

DeTect Inc

Dropet Measurement Technologies

Enterprise Electronic Corps.

EKO

Geonor

Gill Instruments

Graw

InterMet Systems

IPS Meteostar

Kipp & Zonen

Leosphere

Li-Cor Biosciences

Lockheed Martin & Lockheed Martin - Sippican

Meisei

METEK

MODEM

Oriental Electronics

OTT

Radiometrics

R M Young

Scintec

Sutron Corporation

Vaisala

WeatherBug

Weather Decision Technologies

The HMEI Association itself had booth 638 at AMS, at which the HMEI Executive Secretary, Bruce Sumner welcomed visitors and HMEI members attending AMS.

The HMEI booth

The HMEI Executive Secretary welcomes Shu Okadu from Weather Information & Communications Service (a potential new member) to the HMEI booth.

General view of the relaxed AMS exhibition, complete with the Sutron dog.

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Report - Intergovernmental Meeting for the High-level Taskforce for the Global Framework for Climate Services, Geneva, Switzerland, 11-12 January 2010
The 3rd World Climate Conference (WCC-3), held in Geneva from 31 August to 4 September 2009, made a Declaration that called for a follow-up Intergovernmental Meeting for the High Level Taskforce (HLT) on the Global Framework for Climite Services (GFCS) within four months of the signing of the Declaration on 3 September 2009 (i.e. by 3 January 2010).

Bruce Sumner, as Executive Secretary of HMEI attended this meeting, on the invitation of WMO, as an observer. The WMO report of the proceedings of this meeting is available here

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WMO Report on the 1st Management Committee for the CHy Project on the Assessment of the Performance of Flow Measurement Instruments & Techniques is now available
This meeting was reported on by a HMEI Member in the last newsletter. Now the WMO Report of 1st Management Committee for the CHy Project on te Assessment of the Performance of Flow Measurement Instruments & Techniques, Geneva, Switzerland, 18-19 November, 2009 is available here.

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WMO-BIPM workshop on Measurement Challenges for Global Observation Systems for Climate Change Monitoring: Traceability, Stability and Uncertainty, Geneva, Switzerland, 30 March - 1 April, 2010
This workshop, jointly hosted by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM), has participation of experts by invitation only.

Two HMEI members will participate in the workshop: John Petheram from Lockheed Martin in sessions B1 "Stable time-series for key GHGs and other trace species" and B2 "Remote sensing of atmospheric composition and traceability issues in spectroscopic data" and Atte Salmi from Vaisala in sessions B2 "Remote sensing of atmospheric composition and traceability issues in spectroscopic data" and C "Radiation and earth energy balance". The agenda for the workshop and the information on sessions is available from in excel format here.

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Update- The First Conference of Ministers Responsible for Meteorology in Africa, Nairobi, Kenya, 12-16 April 2010
The exhibition at this conference will be 3 1/2 days to be held on 9am 12th April to 15 April at 3pm in the Kenyatta International Conference Centre in Nairobi . At WMO's request HMEI is assisting the local organisers with the exhibition by inviting HMEI members to attend. Several HMEI member manufacturers have registered or expressed interest in exhibiting there, they are: Casella; EEC; Degreane Horizon; Fairmount; Graw; InterMet; Kipp & Zonen; MFI; Modem; Logotronic; Pawan; Proton; Sagim; Selex-Gematronik; Scintec; Sutron; WeatherBug; Vaisala.

WMO has also invited exhibiting HMEI manufacturers to attend the open sessions. Any HMEI members exhibiting who wish to attend the sessions please contact Bruce Sumner at: hmei@wmo.int for conference registration information.

A programme is on the website: http://www.wmo.int/africaconf.  Also the 2nd announcement flyer is available here.

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Update - Regional Association V (South-West Pacific) - 15th session (XV-RA V), Bali, Indonesia, 30 April-6 May 2010
HMEI Has been officially invited to this WMO Regional meeting, see the invitation here. The HMEI Secretariat will also attend to make a report of the meeting, and to promote the Association's work and the HMEI Catalogue to attendees. Vaisala will also send a representative to attend as a HMEI member at the RAV meeting.

The HMEI Executive Secretary, Bruce Sumner, has worked with the local organisers to arrange a small exhibition area with five booths at this regional meeting. The exhibition will be a 3 1/2 day event, exact dates to be confirmed. Members currently having confirmed they will exhibit are: Selex-Gematronik; MTECH Systems; Baron Services; EEC; and TRG.

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Update - METEOREX 2010, Helsinki, Finland 31 August - 2 September 2010
METEOREX 2010 will take place during 2 days of the CIMO Technical Conference (TECO) and the first days of the Commission for Instruments and Methods of Observation (CIMO) Session XV, to be held in Wanha Satama ("Old Harbour"), which is situated within walking distance from the Helsinki city centre.

METEOREX contact persons in Wanha Satama are:
Katariina Vedenkannas katariina.vedenkannas@wanhastama.com, sales and marketing, tel. +358 9 1733 4423
and
Marja Pekkanen marja.pekkanen@wanhasatama.com, constructions, furniture, additional exhibition services, tel. +358 9 1733 4250.

There is now a METEOREX website available with information at: http://meteorex2010.fmi.fi. An accommodation of reservations link will also shortly be activated on that site.

Sponsoring opportunities for the CIMO and TECO conferences are also available, please contact the local organising committee at:
CIMO-TECO-METEOREX@fmi.fi

There will also be a WMO side-meeting with HMEI members on one evening, to talk about WMO issues related to instruments, systems, standards, testing and WIGOS.

A poster section, specifically for instrument presentations from manufacturers, will also feature at METEOREX. Contact Bruce Sumner at: hmei@wmo.int if you are interested in this.

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HMEI Participation in CIMO Guide on Lightning Location
At a WMO CIMO meeting on Remote Sensing held in Geneva on 23 to 27 November, 2009, one of the presented papers was a completely new draft of the CIMO Guide chapter 7 on Lightning Location. The HMEI Executive Secretary suggested to the CIMO Secretariat that HMEI members should be able to contribute usefully to this draft.
 
Therefore the HMEI members were sent the new draft with a request for any useful proposals, changes or updates for the chapter to be sent to CIMO and the Expert Team on Remote Sensing Upper-Air Technology and Techniques chairman by 15 January 2010.

Two HMEI member companies, Vaisala and WeatherBug,  provided comprehensive comments and proposed changes that were submitted for consideration by the Expert Team.

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Brief overview of OGC standards by Chris Little, OGC Meteorology & Oceanography Domain Working Group
The OGC, Open Geospatial Consortium, is a non-profit making, voluntary, consensus based standards organisation. Many National Hydro-Meteorological
Services are interested in using the OGC standards for inter-operable delivery of geospatial data and products, such as maps to customers, using Web Map Services, for example, see http://www.opengeospatial.org/

A number of the OGC standards have become ISO standards and may be mandated on communities either legally (INSPIRE) or otherwise (WMO, GEOSS).

When I was elected as Co-chair of the Meteorology Domain Working Group in OGC, I was surprised to find out how much activity there was concerning
observations, sensors and their networks.

I think these sensor standards are important, not only because of the wide industry support, but because of their orientation towards the Web, where the
'programming paradigm' is different - these standards evoke a 'loosely coupled' style, which has good benefits, but needs a change of approach from the more traditional Fortran/Basic/C tightly coupled software calling paradigm.

The current standards, or groups of standards and profiles, concerning
observing are:

  • TML-TransducerML: a method and message format for describing information about
    transducers and transducer systems and capturing, exchanging, and archiving
    live, historical and future data received and produced by them in a common
    form, regardless of the original source. Transducers include both sensors and
    actuators.
  • SML-SensorML: standard models and XML encoding for describing any process
    related to the description and use of a sensor system, including: measurement,
    deriving higher-level information, dynamic and stationary platforms, in-situ
    and remote sensors, physical properties measured, accuracy, precision, response
    characteristics, spatial weight function, geometric and temporal
    characteristics, documentation, history and reference information. SML
    descriptions of systems, or simulations, can be mined in support of other
    services.
  • SOS-Sensor Observation Service: access and manage observations from deployed
    sensors and sensor systems in a consistent standard way including remote,
    in-situ, fixed and mobile sensors. SOS is the intermediary between a client and
    an observation repository or near real-time sensor channel.
  • O&M-Observations and Measurements: an abstract conceptual model and XML
    framework and encoding for measurements and observations.
  • SPS-Sensor Planning Service: allows a client determine collection feasibility
    for desired collection requests for one or more sensors/platforms; submit
    collection requests directly to the sensors/platforms; inquiring the status of
    requests; updating or cancelling requests, and requesting information about
    other Web services that provide access to the data collected by the requested
    task.
  • SAS-Sensor Alert Service: for publishing and subscribing to alerts from
    sensors.
  • WNS-Web Notification Service: for asynchronous delivery of messages or alerts
    from SAS and SPS web services and other elements of service workflows.

I think many HMEI members should be planning to address these standards strategically and should be informing themselves of where these standards might directly impact their interests and may offer new opportunities, and risks.

More information is at: http://www.opengeospatial.org/projects/groups/sensorweb

I encourage you to participate by joining OGC, or by participating in the OGC Domain Working Groups for Hydrology or Meteorology and Oceanography. These groups are also open to non-OGC members, to encourage wider interest in these influential standards.

Their newsgroups are at:

Although there are many other dedicated to the specific standards.

The Domain Working Groups' Wikis are at:http://external.opengeospatial.org/twiki_public/bin/view/HydrologyDWG/WebHome
and
http://external.opengeospatial.org/twiki_public/bin/view/MetOceanDWG/WebHome

Chris Little , OGC Meteorology & Oceanography Domain Working Group
E-mail: chris.little@metoffice.gov.uk 
Met Office FitzRoy Road Exeter Devon EX1 3PB UK, http://www.metoffice.gov.uk
Tel: +44(0)1392 886278 +44(0)1392 886278 Fax: +44(0)1392 885681 Mobile: +44(0)7753 880514 +44(0)7753 880514

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new COST Actions
Sylvain Joffre has updated HMEI with information on the following new COST Actions, relevant to HMEI Members, which are about to start during the coming months:

ES0904 | EGO - European Gliding Observatories Network (End date: Dec. 2013)
MoU available at: http://w3.cost.esf.org/index.php?id=205&action_number=ES0904 

Underwater gliders are intelligent and affordable platforms useful for long term multi parameter marine observations. They play an important role for present and planned marine observation networks. Deployed in swarms, they provide near real-time high spatial and temporal resolution data that will efficiently fill the gaps left by existing in-situ observation networks based on other marine platforms such as the profilers in the ARGO network. This will be beneficial for both academic oceanographic research and especially operational oceanography systems on which a large number of marine activities now rely. However, the deployment of swarms of gliders requires highly skilled operators and a sophisticated level of cooperation. The objective of the “European Gliding Observatories” Action is to build cooperation at the technological, scientific and organizational levels for a European capacity for sustained observations of the oceans with gliders.

ES0905 | Basic Concepts for Convection Parameterization in Weather Forecast and Climate Models (End Dec. 2013)
MoU at: http://w3.cost.esf.org/index.php?id=205&action_number=ES0905

The main objective of the Action is to provide clear theoretical guidance on convection parameterizations for climate and numerical weather prediction models. Both global and regional atmospheric models are concerned. The Action achieves this objective by creating a core theoretical group to address the fundamental issues of convection parameterization. Modellers and theoreticians join together under this framework. The Action proposes a clear pathway for more coherent and effective parameterizations by integrating existing operational schemes and new theoretical ideas. Proposed alternative approaches intend to replace conventional tuning-based approaches. The Action complements extensive inter-comparison based validations performed by operational modellers.

The Action responds particularly to urgent needs which have arisen from increasing the resolutions of forecast models. In these new-generation models, not only the traditional approximations break down, but associated physical processes become increasingly complex. Thus, the parameterization must be extensively re-formulated with more sophisticated physics under new constraints. The Action contributes to reduce uncertainties in weather forecasts and climate projection by overcoming the often weak physical basis of the current parameterizations.

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Opportunities for Members

1500gm Ozonesonde Balloons
WMO recently requested HMEI to identify manufacturers of 1500gm balloons for a tender they are preparing. The HMEI Executive Secretary advised the WMO Procurement Office of the following HMEI member companies who should be on the tender list:
TOTEX; China National Huayun Technology Development Corporation; and Zhuzhou Research & Design Institute, Chemchina Rubber Corporation.

Request for Information regarding Flash Flood Forecasting System plus Radar
WMO asked the HMEI Secretariat in January for assistance with a project they are specifying. This is for a Flash Flood Forecasting System plus radar in Mauritania, Western Africa. HMEI sent a general request for information on this to HMEI members, and received information from: Belfort; EEC; Eigkelkamp; SEBA; Selex-Gematronik; Sutron; Vaisala; and WDT. The HMEI Secretariat passed their information on to WMO.

NOTE: WMO wanted ONLY basic information on what is available, but are not yet putting out the tender. HMEI will send any other details to members about this matter if and when a tender is proposed by WMO


Request for Information from NEON, Inc.
At the end of December, NEON, the National Ecological Observatory Network, contacted HMEI and asked for a request for information to be passed to all HMEI member. This was duly sent to all HMEI members on the 29th December 2009.

The purpose of this RFI was to identify potential suppliers who could offer Sensors for the NEON Project, which included a wide range of 48 different types of environmental sensors, approx 15000 sensors in total. This RFI was posted electronically at http://www.neoninc.org/contact/doingbusiness on the 4th January 2010, being the only official version for this solicitation.

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Upcoming Intercomparisons

8th WMO Intercomparison of High Quality Radiosonde Systems, Yangjiang, China, 12 - 31 July 2010
The website for further information is at: http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/IMOP/intercomparisons.html

The setup meeting for this Intercomparison was the CIMO Expert Team on Upper-Air Systems Intercomparisons and International Organizing Committee on Upper-Air Systems Intercomparisons that was held in Yangjiang, China, from 31 August to 4 September 2009 is now available on the WMO website under: http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/IMOP/reports.html.

NOTE: The 'pre-planning' manufacturers meeting planned to be held on 27th-28th January 2010, was cancelled by WMO.

Instead the issues will be dealt with in a special session at the 2nd GRUAN Implementation-Coordination Meeting (ICM-2), Payerne, Switzerland, 2-4 March 2010 (see GRUAN meeting information below in WMO meeting section).

WMO requested that Bruce Sumner, the HMEI Executive Secretary, to be the Intercomparison participating manufacturers' representative at this special session.

Mr Sumner will thus represent the HMEI member participants of the Intercomparison at this session.  Mr Sumner has asked for input from all HMEI members, concerned with the Intercomparison, to send him their feedback, concerns and information for the Intercomparison session in good time for the session.

11th International and Regional, Pyrheliometers Intercomparisons (IPC-XI, RPCs), Davos, Switzerland, 27 September - 15 October 2010
HMEI will be the liaison with the manufacturers and will send details to members as soon as information is made available

Arctic Intercomparison of Screens, Temperature and Humidity Sensors, Canada, 2011
A follow up Intercomparison of screens, temperature and humidity sensors is planned to be held in a cold locality, namely the Arctic, starting in the spring of 2011. Canada has volunteered to host this Intercomparison. It is expected that the participants will be the same as those in the recently finished Ghardaïa, Algeria Intercomparison.

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Upcoming WMO Meetings, and Workshops

2nd GRUAN Implementation-Coordination Meeting (ICM-2), Payerne, Switzerland, 2-4 March 2010
This will be held at the MeteoSwiss GRUAN site in Payerne, Bruce Sumner the HMEI Executive Secretary has been directly invited and will attend to represent HMEI at the meeting.

The meeting affords an opportunity for the Working Group on Atmospheric Reference Observations (operating under the GCOS/WCRP Atmospheric Observation Panel for Climate), the GRUAN Lead Centre, initial GRUAN candidate site representatives and other stakeholders to review progress to date, highlight issues and exchange views. Meeting participants will instigate and agree an annual short-term GRUAN work plan within the framework of the GRUAN Implementation Plan 2009-2013 (see http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/gcos/Publications/gcos-134.pdf).

On the final afternoon of the GRUAN meeting there will be a special session on pre-planning for the 8th WMO Intercomparison of High Quality Radiosonde Systems, Yangjiang, China, 12 - 31 July 2010 (see meeting information above in the Intercomparison section). Mr Sumner will attend this on behalf of the HMEI members participating in the Intercomparison.

WMO-BIPM workshop on Measurement Challenges for Global Observation Systems for Climate Change Monitoring: Traceability, Stability and Uncertainty, Geneva, Switzerland, 30 March - 1 April, 2010 
See item earlier in this newsletter.

ET- AWS CBS/IOS Expert Team on Requirements and Implementation AWS Platforms, Geneva, Switzerland, 20-23 April 2010
The HMEI member who is the expert representative on this team is: Yann Sultan - Degreane Horizon.
Information and the agenda for this meeting is available at: http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/OSY/Meetings/ET-AWS6-2010/DocPlan.html

Other HMEI members who would be interested in representing HMEI at this meeting as an expert please contact Bruce Sumner at hmei@wmo.int

WMO Executive Council - Sixty-second Session (EC-LXII), Geneva, Switzerland, 8-18 June 2010
The HMEI Secretariat will as usual attend the EC and make a report for HMEI members. HMEI Council members who wish to also attend please contact Bruce Sumner at: hmei@wmo.int

WMO Commission for Agricultural Meteorology - Fifteenth Session (CAgM-XV), Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 15-23 July, 2010
The dates and place for this meeting is tentative only and yet to be confirmed. HMEI will pass on confirmed information to members as it becomes available.

TECO-CIMO and CIMO XV, Helsinki, Finland, 30 August - 8 September 2010
The TECO will be from the 30 August to 1 September with the CIMO sessions immediately after until the 8th September.
The METEOREX 2010 will be held concurrently with these sessions, see the item earlier in in this newsletter.

Fifteenth Session of Regional Association III (South America) (XV-RA III), Bogotá Colombia, September 2010
Exact dates for this meeting are to be confirmed. HMEI will confirm dates when they become available.

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Upcoming Conferences and sponsorship/exhibition opportunities

First Conference of Ministers Responsible for Meteorology in Africa, Nairobi, Kenya, 12-16 April 2010
See the item earlier in this newsletter.

EWEC2010, Warsaw, Poland, 20-23 April 2010
Leosphere, Scintec, Vaisala and Vector (Windspeed) are HMEI members listed as exhibiting at this event.

The European Wind Energy Conference & Exhibition (EWEC) is a professional, comprehensive and informative event in the wind sector. Register before 18 January at early bird rates. More information is available at: http://www.ewec2010.info/

EWEC is an annual event which combines an extensive exhibition of the leading players with a conference covering every key aspect of the wind market – from technical and theoretical to policy and practice, with over 7,000 key players in the wind industry for four days of networking and professional development.

European Geosciences Union (EGU), General Assembly 2010, Vienna, Austria, 02- 07 May 2010
Registration for exhibitors to rent a booth and/or insert an advertisement in the Information & Schedules Book for the EGU General Assembly 2010 is open now.

The president of the EGU, Prof. Tuija Pulkkinen, as well as the organizers of the exhibition, the Copernicus GmbH, cordially invites you to exhibit your innovations, products and publications and to reach a publicity of 9,000 scientists from 90 countries working in all fields of Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences.

The 2010 exhibition offers the unique option to exhibit in the Job and Education Market. Located in the highly frequented poster area, you have the opportunity to combine your booth with meeting young scientists looking for a career and to present your company/institution on a public stage scheduled in the programme. In 2009, 26 % of the participants were PhD students, i.e. more than 2,300 out of 9,000 people.

Please find detailed information on booth rental at:
http://meetings.copernicus.org/egu2010/exhibition/

BALWOIS, Ohrid, Republic of Macedonia, 25-29 May 2010
The theme for the Fourth International Scientific Conference BALWOIS 2010 will be: Water Observation & Information System for Decision Support.

The conference is designed to facilitate sharing of experiences in water issue and management through presentation of scientific and technical papers and posters on planning research and development activities. Topics for 2010 are: Climate and Hydrology; Environment and Human activities; Water related risks; Integrated Water Resources Management; Ecohydrology; and Computing and technologies.  The first announcement is available at: http://www.balwois.com/2010/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=1&Itemid=69

There will be an exhibition of current hardware and/or software in the field of water. Exhibition information is at: http://www.balwois.com/2010/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=58&Itemid=70

Further information is available at: http://www.balwois.com/2010/

Intersolar 2010, Munich, Germany, 9-15 June 2010
Intersolar brings people and markets together under the guiding principle, "Connecting Solar Business". And as trade visitors from over 145 countries have confirmed: no other event brings together so many decision makers from industry, trade and commerce with solar industry manufacturers, suppliers, institutes and associations. The world's leading solar trade fair therefore facilitates the targeted, personal exchange of valuable information relating to products, markets and services. See more information at: http://www.intersolar.de

Information on exhibiting is available at: http://www.intersolar.de/index.php?id=58&L=1

ISARS 2010 Paris, France 28-30 June 2010
Whilst the International Society of Acoustic Remote Sensing of the Atmosphere and Oceans (ISARS) 2010 has no exhibition, this event invites presentations and poster submissions.
The symposium invites instrument users and manufacturers to hold presentations as one-hour field lectures, involving live demonstrations of individual instruments.

Topics for the conference are: Ground-based remote sensing measurement techniques and instruments; Inversion, retrieval, analysis methods and observation strategies; Process studies in the atmospheric boundary layer; Remote sensing data for modelling of boundary layer and surface processes; and Operational applications of boundary layer research.

More information is available at: http://www.isars2010.uvsq.fr/

International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society-  IGARSS 2010, Honolulu, Hawaii, 25-30 July 2010
This is the 30th anniversary of IGARSS, They will celebrate thier accomplishments over three decades of leadership in remote sensing instrumentation, techniques, and applications development. An importantly aspect will be to look ahead to the future of this field with some fresh approaches and perspectives through the conference theme: Remote Sensing: Global Vision for Local Action. One such activity will be embodied in a plenary session, which will focus on the emerging field of Community Remote Sensing (se http://www.igarss2010.org/CommunityRemoteSensing.asp).

There will be an exhibition at IGARSS 2010 from
27 to 29 July 2010, which will bring together over 2,000 engineers, researchers, teachers, students, and scientists from around the world to review the latest issues and studies of Earth remote sensing, and their environments in space. Join companies, government agencies, educational institutions, research facilities, scientific societies, and others exhibiting the latest in geoscience instruments, equipment, software, books and journals, and scientific programs at the International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium.
For exhibition information go to: www.igarss2010.org/ExhibitsSupportOpportunities.asp

5th International Conference on Fog, Fog Collection and Dew, Munster, Germany, 25-30 July 2010
Whilst there is no exhibition, this event invites presentations and poster submissions. Early-bird submission of abstracts is by 1 December 2009. Regular submission of abstracts is by 31 March 2010.

More information is available at: http://www.irc.nl/page/46818

ERAD 2010 Meteorology and Hydrology Conference, Romania, September 2010
The 6th European Conference on Radar in Meteorology and Hydrology ERAD 2010 will be held in Sibu, Romania, 6-10 September 2010, hosted by the Romanian Meteorological Administration (ANM). Short abstracts submission deadline: 1 of March 2010.

More information is available at the website http://www.erad2010.org/

10th Annual Meeting of the European Meteorological Society (EMS) and the 8th European Conference on Applied Climatology (ECAC), 13-17 September 2010, Zürich, Switzerland.
This event has a thematic focus on High resolution climatology - towards climate change services.

The scientific programme and abstract submission are now accessible at: http://meetings.copernicus.org/ems2010 

Deadline for abstract submission: 30 April 2010.
Deadline for abstract submission with YSTA, Kipp & Zonen Award and waiver application: 09 April 2010.

In the Abstract Submission Tool, submitting authors will be asked whether they agree that their presentation at the EMS10/ECAC8 2010 will be made publicly available at www.emetsoc.org

Information on registration, accommodation and visa requirements as well as exhibition opportunities will also become available on this conference web
site. Local information is available at www.ems2010.ch

The Session programme consists of six programme groups:
- Monitoring the climate (ECAC)
- Understanding processes and climate change (ECAC)
- Climate (change) services (ECAC)
- The Atmosphere and the water cycle
- Communication and education
- Numerical weather prediction

Further information at www.ems2010.ch

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OTHER Conference EVENTS links

WMO Events List
WMO has a list of conference events related to weather, climate and water at: http://www.wmo.int/pages/meetings/conferences_en.html

Environmental Expert List
Environmental Expert has a calendar of  Air & Climate Events listed
at: http://air.environmental-expert.com/events.aspx?level=1&

AMS Meeting List
The American Meteorological Society has a list of conferences of possible interest to HMEI members.
Please go to: http://www.ametsoc.org/meet/meetinfo.html

Copernicus Meeting List
Copernicus organises several scientific meetings each year (for example they organise EGU and EMS each year). Others they organise in the Geo and Environmental fields may be of interest to HMEI members. Please see the list at: http://meetings.copernicus.org/ 

International Association of Hydrological Sciences
The International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS) has a list of Hydrology related meetings on its website. Please see:
http://iahs.info

American Geophysical Union (AGU)
The AGU has meetings listed at: http://www.agu.org/meetings.shtml

World Water Forum
The WWF website has a Hydrology/Water events calendar at: http://portal.worldwaterforum5.org/wwf5/en-us/Lists/Calendar/UpcomingEvents.aspx

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Any HMEI Member or friend of HMEI who would like to submit an article or conference/exhibition information for this newsletter, please contact the HMEI Newsletter editor Chris Charstone at christine@hydrometeoindustry.org