HMEI General Assembly at METEOhYDEX, Geneva, Switzerland  25, May 2011
The 2011 HMEI General Assembly will be held on 25 May, 2011 at 12.30pm, in room  34 of the WMO Congress at the International Conference Centre of Geneva (CICG), where MEYEOHYDEX is being held.

AGENDA

• Opening by Acting Chairman of HMEI

• Acceptance of previous General Assembly minutes

• Acceptance of new members to HMEI

• Election of Chairman of the General Assembly

• Auditors Report for 2009 and 2010

• Voting on the amended Rules of Procedure

• Any Other Business

• Close of Meeting

At this meeting of the General Assembly, there are two items that require a vote of the General Assembly, namely the election of a new Chairman and a vote on suggested changes to the HMEI Rules of Procedure.

Nominations for the position of Chairman are still open. If you would like to nominate someone for the position of Chairman please contact the HMEI Executive Secretary at hmei@wmo.int.

On this occasion the presentation of the HMEI audit for 2009 and 2010 will be made by the new HMEI Auditor, Mr Michael Parratt, of CMAC Auditing, in Geneva.

Minutes of the HMEI Members Meeting at 91st AMS Annual Meeting, Seattle, USA, 24 January 2011
Thanks to Andy McDonald (HMEI Vice-Chairman) the Meeting Minute Secretary for this report.

Photos of the meeting Thanks for these photos to Yuji Hayashi from Oriental Electronics

The Chairman giving his report to the meeting Guest Speaker Wenjian Zhang Guest Speaker Barbara Ryan

Invited Guests: Barbara Ryan - WMO Wejian Zhang - WMO Carl Bower - NWS Fred Branski - WMO

Members Present:
Brian Day - Campbell Scientific
Remy Pepin - Modem
Bryce Ford - Spectra Sensors
Adrien Quesnel - Leosphere
Scott McLoughlin - DeTect Inc
Andy McDonald - Vaisala (acting Minute Secretary)
Ben Dieterink - Kipp & Zonen
Patrick Charpentier - Modem
Ralph Petraghani - Belfort Instruments
Bruce Robinson - Belfort Instruments
Raul McQuiney - Sutron
Ashish Raval - Sutron
Ivar Fredriksen - Geonor
Jacob Bruintjes - Advanced Radar Corp
Jeff Keeler - Advanced Radar Corp
Ulrich Nellen - Selex
F. Schmidmer - Graw
Randolph Ware - Radiometrics
Kevin Petty - Vaisala
Fred Brenner - Metstar
Denny Chrizmer - LM space Company
Tom Curran - LM Sippican
Sven Andersson - Metek
Rachel Billington - Biral
Bob Wright - Environmental Systems & Services
Colin Cookes - Environmental Systems & Services
Chris Goode - EEC
Robert Rissland - TRG
Fred Clowney - Intermet
Lloyd Anderson - Oriental Electronics Inc
Naomi Tamura - Oriental Electronics Inc
Yuji Hayashi - Oriental Electronics Inc
Yoshihiro Imagawa - Sumitomo Electric Industries
Nobuto Takenaka - WICS

Minutes:

1. Ben Dieterink (Chair) opened the meeting, welcoming members and explained the absence of HMEI Secretary due to budgetary constraints. He also welcomed guest speakers Wenjian Zhang and Barbara Ryan from WMO.

2. Chair reviewed previous meeting minutes noting that HMEI now has 107 members in 24 countries. Chair asked for comments. No comments received. Minutes agreed and accepted by membership

3. General Business:
a. Chair discussed membership breakthrough and expressed satisfaction at passing 100 members mark. He expressed the opinion that membership could grow to ~130 members.
b. Chair explained that there had been no new nominations for Chair and that Council members were in process of reviewing new terms which would be proposed to the AGM during MeteoHydex (23-25 May, Geneva). Ben Dieterink agreed to remain as Chair until MeteoHydex.
c. Chair reminded the membership of the 5 new Council working Groups and explained that the groups will report during the AGM at MeteoHydex. The groups are:
     i. WG on Publications and Promotions
     ii. WG on WMO Interaction
     iii. WG on Rules and Regulations
     iv. WG on Membership
     v. WG on CIMO guide
d. Chair remarked that HMEI had been active in 17 meetings during 2010. He reminded audience of the importance of HMEI members attending WMO Intercomparison meetings.

4. Guest Speakers:

• Wenjian Zhang (WMO) - happy to see growth of HMEI. 2011 is a very important year for WMO (Congress Year). Hoping for approval at Congress of priorities:
       i. Climate Impact
       ii. WMO Integrated Global Observing Systems (WIGOS)
       iii. Disaster Risk Reduction
       iv. Aviation Meteorology
       v. Capacity Building
  
  Wenjian's message to HMEI members - WMO priorities are very important and will help the meteorological supplier business but suppliers need to make instruments more affordable to WMO members. Communication with WMO is two-way. Wenjian wants to listen to members and referenced the meeting between HMEI and WM O in January 2011 as a good example of improving dialogue. Wenjian introduced the main speaker, Barbara Ryan.
   
• Barbara Ryan
  i. Joined WMO October 2008 after 34 years with USGS, now working for Wenjian Zhang in the WMO Space Program
  ii. Barbara gave a presentation emphasising:
  
  1. Importance of global and regional weather forecasts - 3 day forecast now 97-98% accurate - emphasised the importance of improved instrumentation in forecast improvement. Most improvement has been in S.Hemisphere forecast accuracy largely due to satellite observations in the last 10-15 years.
  
  2. Climate - the importance of climate monitoring in order to improve climate forecasts.
  
  3. The additional estimated costs for GCOS enhancements to global observation infrastructure (total cost ~$2.5 Billion per year) of which:
       a. ~$1 Billion per year required for satellites
       b. ~$400 Million per year required for open-ocean measurements
       c. ~$500 Million per year for met. infrastructure improvements in developed countries
       d. ~$600 Million per year for met. infrastructure improvements in developing countries
   
• Fred Branski - (CBS President, WMO) - made a request for improved collaboration with the supplier community in order to improve measurement of volcanic ash.

5. Any Other Business
Will minutes of the Working Group meetings be published? Chair replied that these would be updated on HMEI web site in due course.

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Report - GRUAN Implementation Meeting (ICM-3), Queenstown, New Zealand, 28 February to 4 March 2011
HMEI was invited to attend this meeting. Hannu Jauhiainen from Vaisala was the HMEI representative attending this meeting and made the following report for HMEI members.

 The Report of the meeting with agreed decisions will be published by as GCOS report in May 2011. Links to the meeting documents and presentations can be found from the GRUAN homepage www.gruan.org

Thanks to Deutscher Wetterdienst for the photo of the meeting participants

This meeting was hosted and supported by NIWA, GRUAN Lead Centre, U.S. GCOS Program Office at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) [financial support] and NOAA Office Global Programs [financial support].

Meeting organizers: Peter Thorne (Chair, GCOS AOPC Working Group of Atmospheric Reference Observations) ; Holger Vömel, Franz Immler (GRUAN Lead Centre); Anna Kuhn (GCOS Secretariat); Howard Diamond (NOAA); Graeme Strang, Paul Johnston (local organizers, NIWA).

Participants: Participants of the meeting and the joint WG-ARO meeting were from various institutes supporting GRUAN management, sites and science: KNMI, DWD, NOAA, Bodeker Scientific, WMO, Howard University, Hokkaido University, National Physical Laboratory / UK, Met Service / NZ, HMEI, JMA, FMI, NASA, CNR, Meteo Suisse, University of Technology, / Estonia, NIWA, NCAR, CMA. The detailed participant list will be available in the up-coming official report of the meeting.


SESSION 1: UPDATE ON SPECIFIC PROGRESS SINCE ICM-2

Background: GRUAN is network for ground-based reference observations for climate in the free atmosphere in the frame of GCOS (GCOS Reference Upper-Air Network), tasked to:

• Provide long-term high-quality upper-air climate records.
• Constrain and calibrate data from more spatially comprehensive global observing systems (including satellites and current Radiosonde networks).
• Fully characterize the properties of the atmospheric column.

Focus is on reference observation with well documented, traceable and quantified uncertainties, verified in redundant observations. Uncertainty formalism is used to manage instrumental changes. There are initially 15 stations, envisaged to be a network of 30-40 sites across the globe. Current focus is on priority 1 variables water vapour and temperature.

Lead centre progress report II
Achievements:

• Definition of a generic and comprehensive framework of what are” reference observations“ has been agreed.
• Set up of a unique data flow infrastructure that ensures collecting, and dissemination of GRUAN data. Raw data and all relevant meta-data are archived in a data-base.
• First (beta) reference product now available. More should follow soon.

Update from WG-ARO and check on progress against agreed in year activities arising from ICM-2
WG-ARO presentation topics were: WG specific activities update; Progress against agreed ICM-2 2010/11 activities; AOPC meeting feedback; Implementation Plan reminder; Headline take home points.

Progress of data flow and technical manuals
All parts of data handling strategy are basically running and data-flow is running for radio-sounding at several stations. Next step is to broaden the operations to all GRUAN stations. User-friendly program for collecting Radiosonde data with all relevant metadata has been developed (RsLaunchClient). First GRUAN data product is available for evaluation. "Technical documentation" -series has been started.

CIMO intercomparison: Initial results
The GRUAN contribution and the related Scientific Sounding Instruments performance were reviewed.

SESSION 2: GRUAN MANUAL

GRUAN manual discussion and adoption
First version of the manual was overviewed. Purpose and scope of the GRUAN manual was discussed. Contents of the manual in brief are: introduction, reference measurements, measurement uncertainty, ECV's measured in GRUAN, GRUAN sites, instrumentation, and methods of observation, data management, post-processing analysis and feedback, quality assurance.

SESSION 3: GRUAN SCIENCE; GATNDOR ACHIEVEMENTS AND CHALLENGES

GATNDOR: GRUAN Analysis Team for Network Design and Operations Research

• GATNDOR status report to GRUAN ICM-3 was presented. Purpose is to perform focused, short-term research to address specific topics identified by the GRUAN science and management community. Work coordination is with GRUAN Task Teams. GATNDOR investigators collaborate with relevant experts.
• Current GATNDOR research topics were presented: Collocation of observations, Management of change, Quantification the value of complementary observations.
• Linkage between MWRnet (International network of ground-based microwave radiometers) and GRUAN was reviewed.
• GATNDOR challenges, opportunities and goals towards ICM-4 were presented and discussed.

SESSION 4: GRUAN SCIENCE: TASK TEAM UPDATES

Radiosondes Task Team
Progress: The members of the team fixed; Terms of Reference completed and published; a draft task list with priorities prepared by the co-chairs and circulated within the team for comments. Several VH - very high priority tasks are currently in progress.

GRUAN GNSS Precipitable Water (GNSS-PW) Task Team
The goal is to develop explicit guidance on hardware, software and data management practices to obtain GNSS PW measurements of consistent quality at all GRUAN sites.

Status, Progress and Plan was presented. First three development topics are:

• To define GRUAN requirements for GNSS-PW observations that are missing in the requirement tables in GCOS (2007).
• To document and review current status of GNSS instruments and associated data processing methods used at GRUAN sites.
• To define GRUAN requirements for a state-of-the-art GNSS station.

Measurement Scheduling and Related Activities Task Team
Work progress in relation to Task Team objectives was presented. Objectives: To develop defensible, quantifiable, scientifically sound guidance for GRUAN sites on measurement schedules and associated site requirements, in order to meet all GRUAN objectives including climate trend detection, satellite calibration/validation and studies of local meso-scale processes and events

Ancillary Measurements Task Team (TTAM)
Work progress of the Task Team on Ancillary Measurements was presented, including the evaluation of observing methods of radiosondes, lidar, microwave, FTIR, and satellites.

GRUAN-TTAM Terms of Reference:

• Interface with other Expert Teams (e.g., NDACC).
• Evaluate the data products (uncertainty budget etc.) and bring in missing knowledge.
• Inventory potential instruments (and interface with other GRUAN-Task Teams if needed).
• Establish campaign rationales for the validation of data from multiple platforms.
• Establish a system for the routine collection and display of data from multiple platforms.
• Develop guidance on the type and amount of data and associated metadata needed to be stored from the instruments.
• Draw conclusions on the suitability of the deployed equipment.
• Report to WG-ARO on all above duties

Discussion of site assessment, certification and expansion
Whether sites "shall" or "should" adhere to required activities, as well as required sites capabilities, were discussed.

SESSION 5: SITE UPDATES

Site Representation Task Team presentation topics were:

• TT exists to facilitate communication between sites, LC and WG-ARO.
• Each site/program has at least one representative on TT.
• TT desires a shared member from: Site Assessment, Expansion, and Certification Team (on hold).
• Each site is encouraged to provide knowledgeable members to help populate other TTs.

Site reports were presented by sites: Lindenberg, Sodankylä, Tateno, Payerne, Cabauw, Xilinhot, Lauder, Boulder, Potenza, Beltsville and ARM sites.

SESSION 6: TEAM MEETINGS
Joint Task Teams meetings for Radiosondes, Site Assessment, GATNDOR and Site Representation were held. (Outcomes of these meetings are documented in the link material at www.gruan.org).

SESSION 7: FINAL DISCUSSIONS, REVIEW AND ACTION ITEMS

Coordination of efforts with NDACC (Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change)
Structure, priorities and capabilities of NDACC was presented. Collaboration possibilities between GRUAN and NDACC were identified.

Site assessment and network expansion, GRUAN Guide
Site assessment was proposed to be undertaken by WG-ARO with much of the preparation to be undertaken by the Lead Centre

Necessary criteria for sites:

• Producing GRUAN data with the uncertainty estimate and retaining data and metadata for other measures.
• Institutional support with a view to long-term site operation (absolute commitment recognized unrealistic).
• Active network participation.

Timeline

• Define criteria in consultation with site representatives. Final draft for presentation and adoption at next ICM (WG, LC, TT Site reps).
• Year for sites to prepare before assessment starts.
• 2013 onwards for current sites and any additional sites who wish to apply to be GRUAN certified.

Network expansion

• Ad hoc site offers.
• Direct to WG-ARO chair(s).
• WG-ARO consider offer and provide a considered written response of acceptance / decline and any additional information within 12 weeks.
• Planned expansion needs to recognize multiple demands (trend, cal/val of broader networks, process understanding). Will require meeting of relevant stakeholders.

GRUAN Manual

• Excellent start. Manual can be adopted by next ICM once necessary edits are undertaken and approved by LC, WG-ARO (2/3) and site representatives (2/3).

Review of the implementation plan
Session topics were: Measurement guidance roll out; full column characterisation; criteria to assess both instrument specific measures and site performance; assessment of the value and utility of satellite coincident in-situ and remote sensing measurements vis-à-vis standard times for satellite cal/val; temporal sampling guidance for in situ and remote sensing instrumentation; generic guidance on the collocation issue; instrument replacement protocol; data quality and instrument issues in real- time; finalize the GRUAN Manual of Operations: implement a final version of the data dissemination structure; workshop with manufacturers under the joint auspices of GCOS and HMEI; Assessment of utility against cost and logistical overhead of regular site specific Intercomparisons / travelling standards to intercompare sites; Brief the scientific community on GRUAN.

Agreement on tasks for upcoming year
Session topics were: Latent actions from last year; Big issues; Things agreed in the workshop, Surface measurements; Radiosonde ground check; Radiosonde meta-Intercomparison; Site reps TT; IP related activities; Open issues; next steps.

The meeting closed on Friday afternoon, 4 March 2011.

Report – INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE (IOC) FOR UPPER-AIR INSTRUMENTS INTERCOMPARISONS
PAYERNE, Switzerland, 9-31 MARCH 2011
The HMEI Executive Secretary, B. Sumner attended the first day of this meeting to meet with the Radiosonde manufacturers, and to provide any support required; he has made the following report.

In total eleven Radiosonde manufacturers were present, nine of them members of HMEI. The objective of the meeting was to finalise the report of the WMO Intercomparison of Radiosonde Systems, held in Yangjiang, China on 13 July to 1 August 2010.

Participants
As well as the IOS members and WMO Secretariat staff, the following manufactures were in attendance:
Chengfeng Surface Acoustic Wave Co. - Mr WENWU Peng & Mr HUANG Xiaojie
China National Huayun Technology Development Co. – Mr YANG Jiachun
GRAW – Mr Florian SCHMIDMER
Intermet – Mr Christo LE ROUX
Jinyang Industrial Co. – Me Tae-Gyu AHN and Mr Eon-Soo SHIN
Meisei – Mr Kensaku SHIMZUK
Meteolabor – Mr Rolf MAAG
Modem – Mr Rémy PEPIN
Nanjing Daqiao Machine Co. Ltd. - Mr YANG Larong
Lockheed Martin Sippican Inc. – Mr Tom CURRAN
Vaisala – Mr Hannu JAUHIAINEN

Agenda Item 1 - Opening and Organization
Prof. Bertrand Calpini, President of CIMO and Head of the Payerne Research Station, welcomed all participants to this meeting, and particularly welcomed all the Radiosonde manufacturers, and thanked them you all their valuable work to make this Intercomparison such a success.

Agenda Item 2 - Opening Addresses
Dr Calpini mentioned some other Intercomparison activities that are now in the panning stage. The most important new Intercomparison for the next few years will be the WMO Solid Precipitation Intercomparison Experiment (SPICE), being organised by Canada and being held in several different parts of the globe. It is a major initiative, and the work plan will be decided by the CIMO Management Meeting in early April 2011. Dr Calpini explained how SPICE builds on COST 727 – Measuring and Forecasting Atmospheric Icing on Structures. Cost 727, as well as being issued by COST, will be issued as a WMO Technical Report.

Dr Wenjiang Zhang also welcomed all the delegates. On behalf of WMO he expressed thanks to all those involved in the Radiosonde Intercomparison for making it the most successful Intercomparison in WMO history. He explicitly expressed thanks to all the manufactures and all the Yangjiang staff for making a successful Intercomparison.

Tim Oakley, the Project Leader of this Intercomparison, made a short welcome, and thanked everybody involved with the Intercomparison for all their good work in making this a successful Intercomparison.

Agenda Item 3 - 8th WMO Intercomparison of High Quality Radiosondes
Under this agenda item most of the work of the meeting was conducted, including introducing the draft Final Report, discussion on items of concern in the report, finalisation of the report and agreement on publication of the report.

Dr Nash led these discussions. He mentioned, as a summary, that 11 quality Radiosonde systems (hereinafter QRS) were intercompared, and all agreed with temperatures at all levels to be +/-0.3C. It was also mentioned that the results of this Intercomparison will be used to advise WMO Members on the QRS’s for the RBSN/RBCN (Regional Basic Synoptic Networks/Regional Basic Climate Networks), and the results will also assist GRUAN with QRS systems for their networks.

John Nash and Holger Voemel than advised that they have reviewed all the comments received from manufacturers received before the meeting, and presented this revised report, version 1.7, to the meeting. This draft report is a 223 page document, presenting the results of the by far largest and most comprehensive Radiosonde Intercomparison ever conducted.

Dr Nash advised that most of the large random errors of temperature are due to poor exposure/position of the temperature sensor on the Radiosonde. It was also stated that R.H. has a much greater spread between different sensors, and requires further investigation. Also measuring R.H. at night has many pitfalls, possibly due to contamination, ands also deserves investigation.

Dr Voemel described the Scientific Sounding Instruments (SSI), the second part of the Intercomparison. He advised that 12 soundings had been made of all the sensors. These sensors were the CHF, the Vaisala RD100, the Meisei MTR and the Sippican Multithermistor. The results of these soundings are in the final report.

The text of version 1.7 of the Draft Report was reviewed by the meeting, with much discussion and many changes. All these changes were incorporated into a new version 1.9 of the Report. During the remainder of the meeting this version was reviewed, changed and finalised. It is planned to finalise the report before Congress (mid-May 2011) as the Final Report of the Yangjiang Radiosonde Intercomparison.

Agenda Item 4 - Recommendations for Future Intercomparisons
The meeting discussed the need for future WMO upper-air systems Intercomparisons, including Regional/National Radiosonde comparisons as a follow-up of the 8th WMO Intercomparison of High Quality Radiosonde Systems.

Close of Meeting
The meeting closed at lunchtime on 31 March 2011.

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HMEI makes presentation at CIMO Management Group, Ninth Session, Geneva, Switzerland, 5-8 April 2011
This was a closed meeting of the WMO/CIMO Management Group. However Bruce Sumner was invited by Dr Ruedi, the Senior Scientific Officer in charge of CIMO, to give a brief presentation to the meeting.

Mr Sumner's presentation to the meeting noted HMEI's extensive work with WMO and CIMO since 2003 to the present.

The presentation updated the current state of HMEI, noting:

• that there are now 107 HMEI members;
• the five new HMEI Working Groups (WGs):
     WG on Publications and Promotion
     WG on Interaction with WMO and International Organizations 
     WG on Rules and Regulations
     WG on Membership and Recruitment
     WG on CIMO Guide and Technical Reports;
• the HMEI expert (Dr Randolph Ware) on the CIMO Guide Editorial Board;
• HMEI's representation on all CIMO Expert Teams;
• HMEI's ongoing work with WMO Intercomparisons.

The usefulness of the HMEI Catalogue with its organization into 16 parameter areas and 29 applications was noted to the meeting. It was further noted that the Catalogue was used extensively by the WMO Procurement Department.

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Report - International Organizing Committee (IOC) For Radar Quality Control and Quantative Precipitation Estimation (RQQI), Exeter, UK, April 14-15, 2011
Meeting documents are available from: http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/IMOP/meetings/RS/IOC-RQQI-1/IOC-RQQI-1.html

Meeting Participants:
Dr Paul Joe - IOC Member and Chairman - Canada
Malcolm Kitchen - UKMO
Dr John Hubbert -  IOC Member - USA
Mr Daniel Michelson - IOC Member - Sweden
Mr Nicholas Gaussiat - IOC Member - UK
Dr Roberto Calheiros - IOC Member - Brazil
Mr Liping Liu - IOC Member - China
Prof. Daniel Sempere-Torres - IOC Member - Spain
Mark Curtis - (representing Dr Alan Seed - IOC Member - Australia)
Jan Szturc - Poland
Norman Donaldson - Canada (by telephone conference)
Mr Heikki Pohjola - Vaisala
Dr Ronald Hannesen - SELEX-Gematronik
Dr Wenjiang Zhang - WMO
Dr Isabelle Ruedi - WMO
Bruce Sumner - HMEI
Christine Charstone - HMEI

The agenda for the meeting is available here.

The meeting participants at the MetOffice in Exeter, UK (Thanks to Jo Paul for the Meeting Photo)  The RQQI meeting in session (Photo by the HMEI Secretariat)

Item 1 - Opening of the Session
Paul Joe welcomed the participants and explained how the two day meeting would be structured. He also explained that quality control and software issues were a concern of the international radar networks for many years, and this meeting would help resolve some long standing problems with precipitation estimation and radar software.

Item 2 – Project Conception Presentation
See Document 2 "The WMO Radar QC QPE Inter-comparison Project RQQI" by Joe Paul for further information.

General Overview
Paul made a presentation of the overview of the project. Firstly there was a discussion on terminology, as many countries have different terms for the same information. Standard terminology/definitions were defined for all users to use.

This project is needed because there are significant advances in the use of weather radar, such as: its readiness for more quantitative application, more local applications, better instrument level quality control, enhanced regional and global exchange of radar data, and better global quality control.

Another push is from the GEWEX Radiation panel, who need compressive precipitation radar products, especially from extensive networks, so that they can evaluate space-borne applications.

Objectives of Project:

• Intercompare radar quality control algorithms for Quantitative Precipitation Estimation (QPE) applications
• Develop best practices recommendations for WMO Members
• Quantify the quality of QPE radar products globally

Joe Paul noted the steps taken/being taken to achieve this project:

• Workshops with the various stakeholders;
• Organizing Committee set up;
• Project Kick off (14-15 April in Exeter UK);
• Workshop 1: June 2012 to be held at the Toulouse ERAD conference.

Item 3 - The Pilot Intercomparison

This was a trial experiment done to identify critical path, potential problems, weaknesses and so forth that will need to be addressed. The experiment was in four steps:

1) The experiment collated data sets in:

• Several locations: Canada, China, Australia and Saudi Arabia
• Different formats
• Different parameters (dBZT, dbZc, Vr, Spw)
• Different scan strategies
• Different Formats
• Different temporal lengths

2) Various techniques were applied to the data, including CAPPI, Doppler notch, Precip-ET, etc, and outputs generated from each combination of data.

3) Accumulation of results and statistics generated (analysis step), including linear reflectivity, rainrate, probability of detection, spatial correlations, variance and spread of PDF’s, and then the generation of statistics for each combination.

4) Interpretation Step.

Item4 - Discussion and Planning of the Inter-comparison
There was much discussion on the size and scope of the Intercomparison. It was decided that the project should be broken into small segments, and work on each of these should be conducted as a Workshop. After the successful completion of each segment, progress could then be made to next segment. This was the consensus of the meeting, as the meeting also decided that this would allow for a more realistic number of persons and resources to be allocated to each segment.

It was also decided to conduct a search of the literature and collect all the scientific information on radar algorithms into one area, either as a white paper or collected to a website.

Plan for the 1st Workshop

1. Types of data sets required:
   • Time series for signal processing techniques comparisons
   • Synthetic data for technique assessment
   • Actual data for accessing radars in network
    
2. Data sets and modality
   • No weather – 8 different clutter/AP type data sets
   • Weather – 4 different weather data type data sets
   • Modality – 4 different modalities
    
3. Processing
   • Several centres volunteered to be involved with processing of the data.

To progress plans for the Workshop in June 2012, it is proposed to hold a teleconference of all stakeholders in about 2 months time, and a face-to-face meeting later this year (EMS?) or better about March 2012.

Item 5 – Organization of the Radar Quality Control and Quantitative Precipitation Estimation

Intercomparison Procedures:

1. Participation will be according to the diversity of applicability of the potential participants algorithm(s) and limited to a number to be decided (about 15).
2. Invitations will be issued to all WMO members and all HMEI members, and to the members of the IOC.
3. The participants will be selected according to the rules of participation.
4. Data policy and data access were defined by the meeting (to be included in the WMO final report of this meeting).
5. Data sets for processing will be selected by invitation by the IOC.
6. Analysis and draft final report will be done before the 1st Workshop.
7. All algorithm participants invited to the Workshop to finalize the Final Report.
8. Possible Workshop date: Rio de Janeiro September 2012.

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HMEI at the International Symposium on “Weather Radar and Hydrology” (WRaH) Exeter, U K, 18-21 April 2011
The theme of the symposium placed emphasis on user applications of weather radar for flood forecasting and water management.

The exhibition with the symposium had 5 exhibitors, of whom 3 were HMEI members: Baron Services; Enterprise Electronics Corporation (EEC); Gematronik Weather Systems. These three HMEI members were also sponsors of the event, as also was Vaisala.

Baron Services Enterprise Electronics Corporation SELEX- Gematronik Weather Systems

Photos of HMEI member booths by the HMEI Secretariat

The HMEI Secretariat attended the first day of the symposium (which followed after the Radar Quality Control and Quantative Precipitation Estimation meeting, reported on in the previous article) and made this short report of some items on the first day that may be of interest to HMEI members.

The symposium aim was to provide a forum for the exchange of experiences and ideas on the use of weather radar in hydrology. Information and the full programme and abstracts of papers presented are available at: http://www.wrah2011.org/

Opening of the Symposium
Welcome addresses were given by Prof. Nick Talbot from the University of Exeter and Bob Moore from the WRaH 2011 Scientific Committee.

Session 1 - Radar Rainfall Estimation

Weather Radar for Hydrology by Malcom Kitchen was keynote address for this session.
This presentation was based on the experiences of the national weather radar network in the UK, which has now been operational for 25 years.

The UK has been able during these years and in light of the current advances, to identify some lessons that they have learnt along the way, and suggest how the benefit to hydrology can be increased in the next 25 years.

The most important issues raised in this presentation spoke directly to the issues that are looking to be addressed by the ongoing work of the Radar Intercomparison that was being planned in the meeting reported in the article above in this newsletter.

Thus quality control, the need for ground truthing, the new radar techniques for measuring precipitation, and the problems of identification of the various types of precipitation with radar, were all noted.

Internationally the variety of radars and the growing use of radar for precipitation measurement leads inevitably to the need for international agencies to work together to verify and coordinate the use of these techniques. This keynote address very ably indicated this need and set the tone of the symposium and its aims.

Off-the-Grid Weather Radar Network for Precipitation Monitoring in Western Puerto Rico by Jorge M Trabal et al.
This presentation gave an interesting approach to a know problem with close to the ground radar rainfall measurement. The presentation noted:

• Operational weather radars are challenged in providing low-altitude observations of rainfall owing to earth curvature.
• With the limitations the higher power radars techniques, work is underway to explore feasibility of “dense” networks of small X-band radars.
• The concept is to place the radars close enough together (e.g., 30 km apart) to defeat earth curvature blockage and measure rainfall amounts closer to the ground.
• These efforts show promise, but success will ultimately depend on being able to cost-effectively deploy networks comprised of hundreds, or even thousands, of small radars.

The presentation noted the challenge of designing low-cost radars that are capable of high quality QPE, and of deploying large numbers of radars in regions where adequate infrastructure is not available. The presentation outlined a radar network concept based on the (relatively) low-cost feasibility of “dense” networks of small X-band, single-polarization radars that are not dependent on any existing infrastructure, which they call the “Off the Grid” concept.

The aim is to provide a means to monitor rainfall and provide useful data in those regions where is it not feasible or cost-effective to deploy more costly, and more accurate, radars.

Data trials of this concept have been conducted in Western Puerto Rico, where a network of three such radars were deployed during the Central American Caribbean Games in summer 2010 in conjunction with the US National Weather Service.

The authors noted that data from this network has been used to identify small-scale rain cells with better temporal and spatial resolution, and with lower-level coverage, than the operational NEXRAD installation on Puerto Rico.

Icebreaker
The day's proceedings ended with an "icebreaker" reception at the UK MetOffice in Exeter and featuring a visit to the UK MetOffice Radar. This is an experimental radar developed by the UK MetOffice specifically for testing and developments for the planned upgrade of the UK weather radar network.

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CIMEL visits WMO and presents Photometric Conference
Mr Didier Crozel, CEO, CIMEL and Mr Alain Voron, Export Manager, CIMEL, visited WMO on 11 and 12 April 2011 and made a presentation of their products: "Ground based remote sensing instruments for monitoring of aerosols, clouds and optical properties of the atmosphere". CIMEL is a French company specializing in the manufacture of ground-based atmospheric monitoring systems. For the study and observation of atmospheric aerosols three types of ground based remote sensing instruments are used, in conjunction with satellite imaging, namely:
- Sun-sky photometers
- Infrared radiometers (ground based and airborne)
- LIDAR
Therefore the presentation reviewed the state of the art of these technologies, including application, measurement principles, configuration and outputs. As these systems cover a large range of application areas the WMO audience was a range of various personnel of the Departments in WMO, including CIMO, CBS, Satellites, Climatology and Atmospheric Chemistry.

The CIMEL visitors also had some additional face-to-face meetings on the afternoon of the 11th and the morning of the 12th.

The presentation was well received and the separate meetings appeared to generate considerable discussions with WMO personnel. Mr Crozel and Mr Voron declared themselves well pleased with the reception of their visit to WMO and the arrangements made for them at WMO by the Executive Secretary of HMEI.

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WMO Launches Appeal for Fellowship Programme
On World Meteorological Day, WMO launched a web-based Appeal, Building Capacity, One Fellow at a Time, to the wider WMO community for contributions to the WMO Fellowship Programme. The Appeal will continue until the 31st of December 2011 and contributions will be used to support the education of under graduates and post graduates from Least Developed, Developing Countries, and Small Island States in the fields of meteorology, hydrology and climatology. Please see the flyer for this appeal here.

WMO is asking YOU to support your colleagues and get INVOLVED. Be an advocate and help foster existing practitioners and young talent. Support the WMO Fellowship Programme and make a personal donation to the WMO Fellowship Fund.

Please visit the website http://www.wmo.int/appeal  for more details, watch for informational videos, read testimonials from WMO Fellows and support this cause on Facebook.

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Opportunities for Members

Equipment required for the Carib-HYCOS project
The following opportunity, from the Bricquet Jean Pierre, Co-ordinator of the Carib-HYCOS project, was received by the HMEI Secretariat office in late February 2011 and subsequently passed on to all HMEI members:

Tender documents for the equipments of the Carib-Hycos project are now on-line at:
https://www.achatpublic.com/sdm/ent/gen/ent_detail.do?selected=0&PCSLID=CSL_2011_z2oRGvZSCP 

The opening session was expected to be held on March 29th at IRD Montpellier with one steering committee member (probably the representative of Dominican republic).

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New Member
HMEI welcomes the following New Member who has joined HMEI recently:

Essel Shyam Technologies Limited
C-34, Sector-62
Noida, Uttar Pradesh,
India
Email: estl@esselshyam.net
Website: www.esselshyam.net

Essel Shyam Technologies is a Telecom / IT & Media Broadcasting Technology service provider, with services for:
System Integration
Real Time Data Acquisition System
Hydrology
Meteorology
Water Level Measurement
Ground Water Measurement
Water Quality Measurement
Satellite Based Communication Network
Service Provider for VSAT, WIMAX, WIFI, GSM/GPRS

New Member Information
All new members' information here was supplied to us by the member company. HMEI bears no responsibility for, nor endorses this information.

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Upcoming WMO Meetings and Workshops

WMO Sixteenth World Meteorological Congress (Cg-XVI), Geneva, Switzerland, 16 May to 3 June 2011
The Congress documents, particularly the Provisional Agenda, are available at: ftp://ftp.wmo.int/Documents/SESSIONS/Cg-XVI.

The Exhibition of Meteorological and Hydrological Instruments and Equipment (METEOHXDEX), 23 to 25th May 2011
As usual this will be held concurrently with the WMO Congress at the International Conference Centre of Geneva (CICG). Information is available from: http://www.meteohydex.org/.

This year GENEVA PALEXPO has been appointed by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) for the organisation of Meteohydex 2011 which takes place in conjunction with the 16th World Meteorological Congress which will be in session at the CICG from 16th May to 1st June 2011.

Please NOTE that you will not find information about the exhibition at the WMO website this year as Geneva Palexpo is the sole organiser this time.

Documents for registering for exhibition at METEOHYDEX 2011 are available from: http://www.meteohydex.org/registration.html

Deadline for exhibition applications: 14th of January 2011.

The HMEI Members General Assembly 2011 will be held in Geneva during the METEOREX period as noted t the beginning of this newsletter.

63rd Session of the WMO Executive Council (EC-LXIII), Geneva Switzerland, 6-8 June 2011
Documents for this EC are not yet available.

16th WMO/IAEA Meeting of Experts on Carbon Dioxide, Other Greenhouse Gases, and Related Tracer Measurement Techniques, Wellington, New Zealand, 25-28th October 2011
The first announcement is available from: http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/arep/gaw/documents/Firstannouncement.pdf

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Upcoming Conferences and sponsorship/exhibition opportunities

2011 International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) General Assembly, Melbourne, Australia, 28 June - 7 July 2011
The theme for the 2011 IUGG conference is "Earth on the Edge: Science for a Sustainable Planet ".
Information is available at: http://www.iugg2011.com/. Also see the media release at: http://www.csiro.au/news/Earth-on-the-edge-2011.html.

Areas covered by the conference include Hydrology, Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences, Physical Sciences of the Oceans, etc.

The IUGG 2011 Trade Exhibition will run in conjunction with the General Assembly Program. The Exhibition dates will be Thursday 30 June - Tuesday 5 July 2011. There are also sponsorship opportunities. The Sponsorship & Exhibition Prospectus can be downloaded at: http://www.iugg2011.com/pdf/IUGG_Sponsorship_Prospectus_Floorplan10.pdf

The Exhibition has been designed to provide the best possible promotional opportunities to participating organisations by maximising exposure to General Assembly Delegates. With the Welcome Function and all lunch/refreshment breaks being served in this area, the Exhibition will create a great forum to meet with delegates in person.

2011 World Water Week, Stockholm, Sweden, August 21-27 2011
The first announcement is available at: http://www.worldwaterweek.org/documents/WWW_PDF/2011/1st_Announcement_2011_ls.pdf
 All information is available from: http://www.worldwaterweek.org/

10th Annual Meeting of the European Meteorological Society (EMS) and 10th European Conference on Applications of Meteorology (ECAM)  Berlin, Germany 12-16 September 2011
EMS/ECAM has been announced to be held in Berlin, Germany 12-16 September 2011. The web-link is: http://meetings.copernicus.org/ems2011/ . The conference theme is Forecasting the weather - ensemble techniques in probabilistic weather prediction.

Information for exhibitors is available from: http://meetings.copernicus.org/ems2011/exhibition/general_information.html. The exhibitors' deadline is 15 June 2011.

International Workshop on Hydrometry, Manaus - Amazonas, Brazil, 13-16 September 2011
The dates of the workshop are tentative currently. The institutions promoting the workshop are:
• National Water Agency (ANA-Brazil)
• National Meteorological Institute (INMET-Brazil)
• World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
• International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS)
• Brazilian Association of Water Resources (ABRH-Brazil)

The impetus for this workshop comes from a desire to broaden and foster interaction among research professionals, decision-makers and the private sector. The workshop will contribute to the advancement of hydrological science and the improvement of water resources management instruments. Some of the questions inherent to this activity include: What to measure? How to measure it? When to measure it? And with which equipment is it to be measured?

The main goals of this workshop are:
1) discuss the benefits of integrating hydrometric studies and their application in water resources management,
2) to compare results achieved with the application of new methodologies and equipment, and
3) to promote information sharing, capacity building and increased access to new technologies.

More information, including the Workshop Topics, is available in the Terms of Reference of the Workshop here.

5th International Conference on Flood Management (ICFM5), Tsukuba, Japan, 27-29 September 2011
The ICFM5 theme is "Floods: From Risk to Opportunity". The first announcement is at:
http://www.ifi-home.info/icfm-icharm/ICFM5_First%20Announcement.pdf . The website for the conference is: http://www.ifi-home.info/icfm-icharm/icfm5.html

International Scientific Conference on "Energy and Climate Change" , Athens, Greece, 13-14 October 2011
This event is being organised by the PROMITHEAS Network for the fourth year. Please find more details regarding this event (venue, members of the Scientific Committee, themes and topics, registration fees) in the brochure here.

The second open call has been released after receiving requests to extend the deadline. Accepted abstracts are uploaded at the web-site of the PROMITHEASnet (http://www.promitheasnet.kepa.uoa.gr).   

Accepted abstracts are uploaded at the web-site of the PROMITHEASnet (http://www.promitheasnet.kepa.uoa.gr). The review procedure is not completed.
For any questions please contact the organisers at promitheas@kepa.uoa.gr.

Meteorological Technology World Expo, Brussels, Belgium, 18-20 October 2011
To be held in the exhibition centre in Brussels, Belgium, Meteorological Technology World Expo will be held over three days from 18-20 October 2011. The Expo looks to attract decision makers from the global commercial meteorological community, including Aviation, Shipping, Marine/Port installations, Airports, Military Operations, Off-Shore Exploration and Wind Farm Operators, and of course Met Offices and Research Institutes.

HMEI members currently listed as exhibiting are:
Aanderaa Data Instruments AS
All Weather Inc
Baron Services
Biral
Casella Monitor
Environmental Measurements Limited
GAMIC mbH
Geonor AS
Gill Instruments Ltd
IPS Meteostar Inc
Jenoptik Defense & Civil Systems / ESW GmbH
Komoline Electronics Pvt Ltd
Leosphere
Meteorage
OTT Messtechnik GmbH
Rotronic AG
RPG Radiometer Physics GmbH
Selex Systems Integration GmbH
Techsense Solutions Sdn Bhd
Vaisala Oyj
VCS Aktiengesellschaft

HMEI members currently make up half of the current exhibition list. The full list is available at: http://www.meteorologicaltechnologyworldexpo.com./exhib_list.php

The Association of HMEI will have booth 7010, thanks to the organizers for this donation.

Meteorological Technology World Expo is being organized by the publishers of Meteorological Technology International magazine.

For full information on the Expo please visit www.meteorologicaltechnologyworldexpo.com. For further information on exhibiting or visiting the Expo please contact Barry Smith, Event Director on 44 (0) 1306 743744 or b.smith@ukipme.com.

WCRP Open Science Conference 2011, Denver, USA, 24-28 October 2011
The World Climate Research Programme will host this conference with the theme "Climate Research in Service to Society".

See http://www.wcrp-climate.org/conference2011/ for information on this conference.
Abstract deadline: 30 April 2011.

The Second Announcement is available from: http://www.wcrp-climate.org/conference2011/documents/2ndAnnouncement_OSC.pdf

Exhibition and sponsorship information is available at: http://www.wcrp-climate.org/conference2011/documents.html

1st International Conference Energy & Meteorology (ICEM), Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, 8-11 November 2011
ICEM 2011 is being held at the Surfers Paradise Marriott Resort & Spa, Queensland. There will be a Welcome Reception on 7 November.

This inaugural event will be a meeting for 2011 for scientists, engineers, economists, policy makers and other specialists working at the nexus between weather, climate and energy. As the first international meeting of this kind, they are looking to set the benchmark worldwide and are expecting over 300 national and international delegates, both from the developed and developing worlds.

See the Sponsorship and Exhibition Brochure here, where there are many sponsorship opportunities as well as trade participation. They are looking for participation from sponsors and/or exhibitors who would like to take advantage of this opportunity to expose and highlight their product and services to this highly targeted group.

For more information on ICEM, please visit: http://www.icem2011.org or contact Ms Aurélie Favennec, the Conference manager at: info@icem2011.org.

6th China International Exhibition - Technology and Equipment of Meteorology Science & Hydrology, Xiamen, China, 10-12 November 2011
This is a major bi-annual exhibition in China. It will be held in Xiamen International Conference & Exhibition Center. HMEI has been invited to be co-organiser of this event. The prospectus is now available and has been sent to HMEI members by the HMEI Executive Secretary. Please see the prospectus here.

The exhibition will be held in conjunction with the annual Meteorology Science & Hydrology Conference from 9th-11th, November, 2011. Also a forum will be held from 9th-10th November.

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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 organizes several scientific meetings each year (for example they organize EGU and EMS each year). Others they organize 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/.

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