HMEI Newsletter - January/February 2005


HMEI Newsletter Archives


Newsletter date: 31 January 2005


The HMEI Executive Secretary, Bruce Sumner, and the Administrator, Christine Charstone, wish all HMEI Members a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

In this newsletter:

HMEI Booth at the 85th AMS Annual Meeting Exhibition 2005 in San Diego

HMEI Meetings at the 85th AMS Annual Meeting in San Diego, 10th January 2005

HMEI General Assembly at METEOREX 2005 

 Council positions up for nominations and re-election

Thirteenth session of the CBS (CBS-XIII), St. Petersburg, Russian Federation, 23 February - 3 March 2005

 JCOMM Ship Observations Team, Third Session, 7-12 March 2005, Brest, France

 ET on Remote Sensing Upper-Air Technology and Techniques 14-17 March, Geneva, Switzerland

 New Members and New Member Information

 International Conferences & Exhibitions


HMEI Booth at AMS 85th Annual Meeting exhibition in San Diego- January 2005

The AMS Exhibition was an opportunity for the HMEI to disseminate information about the work of HMEI and to bring to the attention of users of hydrological and meteorological products, the HMEI, its members and the HMEI Member Products Catalogue.
Mr. Bruce Sumner the HMEI Executive Secretary at the HMEI booth at the 85th AMS Annual Meeting Exhibition, January 2005 in San Diego, USA. (Photo by HMEI Administrator)

The HMEI booth attracted a steady stream of visitors. These visitors picked up a great deal of members’ literature and many visitors where introduced to the HMEI Catalogue which was live online at the booth. We also had 100 copies of the HMEI Catalogue on CDs, which were taken up by visitors to the booth. 

A World Bank staff member visited the booth and spoke with the HMEI Administrator.  She was very excited by the potential of our catalogue, and aims to make it known within the Bank and to clients.  She said that it seems to her an excellent way to help assure that many capable companies are  considered for Bank tenders.  She will try to assure that HMEI's value to its members is more widely known.  

Several visitors from the various NOAA departments visited the HMEI booth. They were shown the HMEI catalogue and its potential for expanding their procurement base. There was an evident interest in being able to easily find new companies for procurement and tenders, especially in the face of the rising costs of products in the industry.

Howard Diamond the US Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) Program Manager, who has attended WMO meetings in which HMEI representatives have participated, visited the HMEI booth. He wishes to work further with HMEI in regard to HMEI members’ input into the specification of the future needs of the GCOS.

Representatives from the Canadian Meteorological Service; The Polish Institute of Meteorology and Water Management; and the Argentine National Meteorological Center - Radar and Satellites division; also visited the HMEI booth and where made aware of what HMEI and its online Member Products Catalogue has to offer.

The HMEI Executive Secretary was exceptionally busy visiting company booths and demonstrating the benefits of HMEI, including its catalogue, to the company representatives. Three new members immediately joined, as a result of the HMEI presence at the AMS exhibition, and several other companies have asked us to send application forms on to them as they too wish to join. The HMEI Secretariat is now sending out those application forms. Also other companies, who expressed interest in HMEI and gave contact details to the Executive Secretary, are being contacted by him, with a view to their joining.

HMEI was of course also visited by Yale Schiffman from the AMS, who was responsible for donating the booth space to HMEI. Yale expressed his satisfaction with HMEI’s participation at AMS this year and looked forward to HMEI participating at the AMS Annual Meeting in Atlanta in 2006. Megan Krol the Exhibitions Manager for AMS similarly was very positive about the HMEI presence at the exhibition this year and has allocated a booth for HMEI in Atlanta next year.

The 2005 AMS Annual Meeting Exhibition also gave the HMEI Secretariat the pleasure of catching up with the various HMEI member companies and their representatives who were exhibiting or visiting the exhibition. To see pictures of HMEI members at AMS please visit the HMEI website version of this report which has pictures taken by the HMEI Administrator.

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HMEI Meetings at the 85th AMS Annual Meeting in San Diego, 10th January 2005

THE HMEI OPEN MEETING HELD AT THE 85th AMS IN SAN DIEGO, 10th JANUARY 2005 - MINUTES OF MEETING

Thirty four people attended this meeting, representatives from both exhibitor companies and international organizations.

Opening by the HMEI Chairman at 9am
The Chairman of HMEI, Ben Dieterink, welcomed those attending the first Open Meeting held by HMEI. In his welcome Mr. Dieterink noted the growth of HMEI from 15 to 67 members during the past year and its expectation of continuing growth.
Mr. Dieterink announced the inability of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Secretary General, Mr. Michel Jarraud, to attend the meeting. Mr. Jarraud was to have been the guest speaker from WMO. However due to the recent tsunami disaster unforeseen commitments elsewhere now prevented him from being at AMS in San Diego as expected. Mr. Dieterink introduced the HMEI Executive Secretary, Mr. Bruce Sumner, who had been asked to read Mr. Jarraud’s speech in his absence.

 

HMEI Executive Secretary - Reading of the Secretary General of WMO’s Speech in absentia:
STATEMENT ON THE OCCASION OF THE ASSOCIATION OF HYDRO-METEOROLOGICAL EQUIPMENT INDUSTRY 
OPEN MEETING
By M. Jarraud, Secretary-General,
World Meteorological Organization
(San Diego, USA, 10 January 2005)

Mr. Ben Dieterink, chairman of the of the Association of Hydro-Meteorological Equipment Industry, Mr. Jan Hörhammer, vice-chairman of the of the Association of Hydro-Meteorological Equipment Industry, Distinguished Members of the Association, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I wish to convey my message at this occasion even if my other preoccupations due to the devastating Asian Tsunamis that hit the southern Asia on 26 December 2004 did not allow me to be personally with you.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
It has always been part of the WMO strategy to collaborate with instrument and equipment manufacturers since we both have a common interest, namely the enhancement of global monitoring capacities, which will result in development of and progress in meteorology. I am very pleased that the Association of Hydro-Meteorological Equipment Industry (HMEI) has filled the missing link between WMO and instrument manufacturers. The hosting of the HMEI Executive Secretary within WMO Secretariat facilitated even closer cooperation of the Association with the WMO Secretariat, followed by the active participation of HMEI’s representatives at number of WMO events.

I recall, that following the request of the HMEI Association, the fifty-fourth session of the
WMO’s Executive Council (2002) granted HMEI a consultative status with WMO. Based on this consultative status, the HMEI Association is entitled to be represented by an observer, without voting rights, at sessions of the World Meteorological Congress, Regional Associations and the Technical Commissions in which HMEI is interested. At these sessions, HMEI is entitled to present documents, propose items for agenda and take part in the discussions.
I wish to recall the HMEI Association nominated 31 experts from 13 manufacturers into the nine CIMO Expert Teams, who worked actively within the CIMO structure. In this connection, nine HMEI representatives participated in the first session of the Joint Meeting of the Expert Team on Upper-Air Systems Intercomparisons and International Organizing Committee on Upper-Air Systems Intercomparisons, held in Geneva, Switzerland, from 17 to -20 March 2004, and three HMEI representative participated in the first session of the Expert Team on Surface Technology and Measurement Techniques (ET-ST&MT), held in Geneva, from 13 to 16 October 2004. The success of these events was also due to collaboration with nominated HMEI experts. HMEI representatives also participated in the sessions of the WMO constituent bodies, such as the fifty-sixth session of the Executive Council and the twelfth session of the Commission for Hydrology.
I wish to express my satisfaction that the joint co-ordination efforts have come to a very positive conclusion that opens a new dimension for collaboration between the private instrument sector and WMO.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
The theme of your meeting: “Private Industry and an Integrated Earth Observing System” is very actual and, therefore, wish to recall that at the invitation of the United States of America, on 31 July 2003 in Washington DC, thirty-three nations, and the European Commission, joined together at the first Earth Observation Summit (EOS-I) to adopt a Declaration that called for action in strengthening global cooperation on Earth observations. The purpose of the Summit was to Promote the development of a comprehensive, coordinated, and sustained Earth observation system or systems among governments and the international community to understand and address global environmental and economic challenges; and begin a process to develop a conceptual framework and implementation plan for building this comprehensive, coordinated, and sustained Earth observation system or systems. To this end, the Summit participants launched an ad hoc Group on Earth Observations (GEO), with the goal of furthering the creation of a comprehensive, coordinated, and sustained Earth observing system or systems.
Four sessions of GEO have been held followed by the second Earth Observation Summit (EOS-II). GEO-2, which met in Baveno, Italy, 28-29 November 2003, had agreed with the following recommendation concerning its architecture: “GEOSS should be a system of systems supplemented by new observing components as and where required. This architecture would allow existing individual observing systems, e.g., WMO’s WWW GOS, to remain within their mandates as well as providing for new observing components. The architecture would require a new interface between individual observing components as well as a new component to exchange and disseminate observational data between those components. GEO members and participating organizations would need to agree upon a global interoperability specification to which all individual observing components would adhere. GEOSS would contain the necessary network structure to make available all required observations to satisfy the Data Utilization Model.”
The fifty-sixth session of the WMO Executive Council adopted Resolution 9 (EC-LVI) on the Global Earth Observation System of Systems in affirming its full support for the GEO process and resulting GEOSS. In this regard, I invite the HMEI Association to follow more closely the development in GEOSS and contribute to this process from the point of view of developers of meteorological instrument and systems.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
WMO Intercomparisons are essential for WMO Programmes as well as manufacturers and users that demand accurate homogenous measurements. Comparison of sensors, instruments and equipment, which are operationally applied for measuring meteorological variables, are important means of determining their performance characteristics under in-situ (field) conditions.
In this regard I am pleased that a great number of manufacturers take part in the WMO
  Intercomparisons organized in 2005. This includes WMO Laboratory Intercomparisons of Rainfall Intensity (RI) gauges, WMO Intercomparison of High-quality Radiosonde Systems and International and Regional Pyrheliometer Comparisons.
The WMO Laboratory Intercomparison of Rainfall Intensity Gauges was launched, simultaneously, in September 2004, in the laboratories of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, Météo-France and the Italian Met Service (University of Genova). The selected 19 pairs of instruments from 18 manufacturers were divided into three groups, with each group being tested for a period of about three months in each of the laboratories, in order to obtain a high degree of confidence in the results. The first phase of tests is nearly completed; the second will start in late January 2005 the last - third phase is expected to end in mid-2005. The chairman of the International Organizing Committee, the Project and Site managers will meet on 17 January 2005 to assess outcome of the first phase.
The WMO Intercomparison of High Quality Radiosonde Systems will be held in Vacoas, Mauritius, from 1 to 27 February 2005. Training of the local supporting staff as well as installation of all ground equipment will be done between 1 and 5 February so that the Intercomparison itself could start on 7 February 2005, following a start-up ceremony. Several radiosonde systems will participate in the Intercomparison. Participating radiosondes will be divided into two groups and sent off successively on 2000 g balloons at four launch times, 10h, 13h, 19h and 22h local time.
The core Project Team comprising the ET/IOC Chairman, Project Manager, Radiosonde
Comparison Expert and Data Manager, supported by local staff and a number of dedicated personnel from participating manufacturers, will all guarantee that the agreed objectives are met.
Preparations have started for the tenth International Pyrheliometer Comparison (IPC-X) and conjoint Regional Pyrheliometer Comparisons (RPC) to be held from 26 September to 14 October 2005 in the World Radiation Centre (WRC), Davos, Switzerland. The IPC-X is primarily intended for the calibration of standard pyrheliometers of all WMO Regional Radiation Centres (RRCs). It is planned to carry out conjointly RPCs of all Regions similarly as at previous IPCs. National Standard Pyrheliometers that are maintained at National Radiation Centres (NRCs) concerned, will be compared against the World Standard Group as part of the RPC. If the comparison infrastructure allows, other national institutions may apply for participation at the IPC-X. The WRC in Davos, will organize a scientific symposium and a workshop during the IPC-X related to meteorological radiometry and atmospheric radiation and relevant manufacturers are invited to take part also in this symposium.

Ladies and Gentlemen:
As you surely know the WMO Technical Conference on Meteorological and Environmental Instruments and Methods of Observation (TECO-2005) and the associated Exhibition of Meteorological Instruments, Equipment and Services (METEOREX-2005) will be held in Bucharest, Romania from 4 to 7 and from 4 to 6 May 2005, respectively.
I wish to underline the importance of such technical conferences and exhibitions as a
means of exchanging technical information and experience and of facilitating technology transfer and capacity building. The side by side organization of the technical conferences and the exhibitions provide a unique interaction between the manufacturers of meteorological and related instruments and the user community so that the manufacturers may better understand the needs of users, and users can also better understand how new developments in observing technology can help them satisfy their needs in the near future.
By end of November 2004, 61 manufacturers had registered for participation in METEOREX-2005 and it seems that this event may be the biggest WMO exhibition so far. Therefore, please accept my warm welcome to those registered and also to those that intend to participate.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
WMO is at the forefront in developing and setting standards and defining methods of observations in all these application areas. I truly believe that a close co-operation between WMO and the HMEI Association will be beneficial for both communities. Not only will you learn early of WMO plans and intentions, WMO will also benefit from views and advice the industry has to offer. It is very important, for instance, that WMO experts are made aware of potential engineering or cost implications a newly conceived observing methodology might have on the instrumentation.
 

In conclusion, I would like once again to congratulate you and assure you of WMO's continuous collaboration. I wish you a successful continuation of your deliberations here in San Diego.
Thank you for your attention.

 

Paul Fransioli Secretary of the ISO/SC5 Meteorology Group- Presentation on behalf of ISO:
Meteorological Standards for you and your clients
Mr. Fransioli is a representative of both the ASTM and ISO Meteorology Subcommittees.

Mr. Fransioli's PowerPoint presentation covered:
An explanation of the purpose and method of creating standards in ISO and ASTM
A description of the meteorological standards groups in ISO and ASTM
The advantages of standards for manufacturers and service providers
The advantages of standards for clients and  users
Who the sub-committee members are
How to become involved in the process  of standard setting.
Link to Mr. Fransioli's PowerPoint Presentation

Mr. Fransioli emphasized the need for involvement of private sector to have a complete picture on how standards should be formulated. He suggested that HMEI, with its Liaison Status with ISO, was an excellent way for manufacturers to be involved with ISO and all the reciprocal advantages it will bring to their products.
Mr. Fransioli answering questions at the HMEI Open Meeting (Photo courtesy of ORI)

 

HMEI Executive Secretary -  Presentation:
"The Role of Private Industry in Supporting Integrated Observing Systems"

Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen:
This presentation is a response from the Association of HMEI Secretariat to the AMS Annual Meeting theme this year, “Building the Earth Information System”. This has been clarified by AMS as:  the role that science can play in decision-making for society. With one-third or more of the economy being sensitive to weather and climate variability and changes, decisions involving resource management, economic development, hazard response, and policy all require the development of observing systems, science knowledge, and products that provide information across multiple spatial and temporal scales in the atmospheric and related sciences”.

Such an inclusive approach as outlined, which will encompass weather, environment, climate, agrometeorology, oceans, hydrology, bio-diversity, indicates the need for standardization of cross cutting applications, products and data outputs in order that inclusion, comparison and integration are in fact possible.

This need was noted in at the 56th WMO Executive Council last year, in the presentation entitled "A Vision on the use of new observation technologies for meteorology and hydrology in the next decade ". This talk outlined the vision of the ad hoc Group on Earth Observations (GEO) for a “system of systems”, combining all the major areas of the earth observations, and the institutions and agencies who use or process them, into a Sustained Integrated Earth Observing System. To facilitate this it was emphasized that there would need to be common agreed standards and formats, so that data from different areas can be easily integrated and an overall picture of the Earth as a system gained.

So what indeed is the “Role of Private Industry in Supporting An Integrated Earth Observing System”?  I suggest that ideally it would be, as suggested by AMS, a means of providing “products that provide information across multiple spatial and temporal scales in the atmospheric and related sciences”.

Many manufacturers in our industry already cut across different fields in the products they produce and the sectors to which they sell. They have a vested interest in maximizing the potential for extending applications of the technologies and expertise they are developing. This suggests that within each manufacturer’s varying applications and products there is already either actual data integration ability, or the potential for integration. However there remains the problem of integration of data from varying manufacturers.

Such integration problems stem, often, from the varying specifications which are demanded by the clients. Therefore many manufacturers supply to demand and if the demand varies for each client, so the solutions and the products will inevitably vary. The need is for standards, “universally” followed by clients, which would maximize worldwide efficiency in integration of information. A follow on benefit from such standardization could also be the possible lowering of costs which standardization of demands could bring. This would result in a more affordable set of products, especially important for third world countries who are struggling to keep up with the demands of the best practice standards of data output, which a worldwide integrated system of systems would require.

The HMEI has as part of its stated aims, the aim to Represent, communicate and defend, at an international level, the views of the hydro-meteorological instruments and systems industry, thereby ensuring a voice for the industry in discussions and resolutions concerning designs, standards and operations of environmental, meteorological and hydrological instruments and equipment…”, and to Promote and contribute to standardization world-wide in the meteorological and hydrological fields…”. In working to achieve these aims HMEI and its members are cooperating with organizations such as World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and its various Commissions, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), to name but a few.

Such communication between developers, manufacturers and service providers within the international hydro-meteorological instruments and systems industry is necessary to achieve discussion on and resolution of matters of standardization and integration. It is a step towards manufacturers in this industry being able to let the wider hydrological, meteorological and environmental community know what is feasible technically and economically. This knowledge is vital if we are to gain a realistic view off how standards and integration of atmospheric and related sciences information worldwide can actually be achieved.

For private industry to maximize an effective role in supporting an Integrated Earth Observing System, their opinions and expertise needs actively to be sought in all the relative international forums. Industry organizations and associations, such as HMEI, are important resources of international private industry expertise. Thus these resources need to be consulted, still further, by those in the international community and HMEI invited to participate in the debates and decisions on development of products and the standards for them. Organizations such as WMO and ISO in freely welcoming a private industry association such as HMEI into their midst, shows the way to beneficial private and public cooperation in the atmospherics, environmental and related sciences.

HMEI will continue to work to develop and extend the cooperation between its ever growing membership and the wider international earth sciences community. For it is by these sorts of efforts that private industry can fulfill its essential role in helping the world to develop a truly Integrated Earth Observing System.

Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen:
The aim of this presentation has been to emphasize the HMEI’s view of international cooperation between the private and public sectors of our industry, in order to support the achievement of an Integrated Earth Observing System. However HMEI also believes that promoting debate and discussion in public forums is an important part of its role within the earth sciences community. Therefore, with the agreement of the HMEI Chairman, I would now like to open the meeting to questions and discussion on issues raised in my presentation.
Thank You.

Disscussion
Following is a summary of the questions and discussion from the floor of the meeting:

Question from the floor: Are there many conflicts between the private industry and the government agencies, in the discussions and meetings to try to establish standards?

 Response from Paul Fransioli: There is usually an open and collegial environment between those participating in the meetings and in this spirit there is no particular sense of conflict between the people attending the meetings.

Comment from HMEI Administrator: Similarly, in WMO meetings there is a spirit of communication and exchange of knowledge rather than any conflict.

Question from HMEI Vice Chairman: WMO already has guides and standards of a sort so how does this tie in with the ISO work?

Response from Paul Fransioli: WMO in fact encouraged ISO to look at the creation of standards. WMO has protocols and guides but as their scope did not go to the Standards per se they (WMO) encouraged the base standards to be set by ISO in order that WMO could have a good basic level described by ISO for WMO to then base their Guidelines on and to build from. ISO is looking to provide a common denominator for Guides to be referred to by the various bodies creating Guides. 

Comment from HMEI Councilor Joe Parini: The tensions (rather then conflicts) create a valuable ambiance for creating well-balanced decisions from the various inputs.

Question from the floor:  Does HMEI have an input into the CBS (Commission for Basic Systems) guides?

Response from HMEI Executive Secretary: Not as yet but that is our next area of concern.

Question from the floor:  For information systems, will HMEI be having the same input as in instruments?

Response from HMEI Chairman: Yes, HMEI will be going into any areas that our members’ request of us.

Comment from HMEI Executive Secretary: HMEI has started with CIMO, as these meetings were being held in 2003 and 2004. We have the right to be involved in all the other areas of WMO too and we will become involved in meetings in other area as they come up.

Comment from HMEI Administrator: In fact the WMO Commission for hydrology (CHy) 12th session was recently held in 2004 and HMEI representatives attended.

Comment from HMEI Vice Chairman: Buffer has already has been addressed with Upper-Air at CIMO meeting and HMEI members have been there. Also it takes time for the WMO machinery to be able to address these things but we are working steadily towards such goals.

Question from the floor: NOAA is revising its decisions to not be providing services that private industries provide, will HMEI be involved in this issue with the NOAA.

Comment from the floor: Yes, HMEI should be involved in those issues.

Additional question from the floor: What are the national issues that HMEI will be involved in? 

Response from HMEI Chairman: HMEI has not yet become involved with issues on national levels. However it is something we would like to become involved with in the future and we will be looking into this.

Comment from the floor: This was in the form of an anecdote, which suggested that the process of establishing standards may be messy to watch evolving, but would be very worthwhile in the end.

Close of Meeting
The HMEI Chairman thanked Mr. Fransioli for his presentation and those attending the meeting for their participation. He then closed the meeting at 10.20am.

 

Closed HMEI Members' Meeting 
A private member's meeting followed the Open Meeting at 10.30am.Twenty three HMEI members attended this meeting. The text of minutes of this meeting has been sent directly to HMEI members.

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HMEI GENERAL ASSEMBLY at METEOREX 2005

The METEOREX 2005 Organizing Committee from the Romanian Met Service, have confirmed the allocation of a booth at no cost for HMEI at the Romoepxo Exhibition center. Thus  HMEI hopes to repeat the success it had with its booth at the 85th AMS, at METEOREX 2005 in Bucharest.  
The HMEI General Assembly is also confirmed for during that period in Bucharest. However the provisional date previously given in the last newsletter may be revised. We will let members know as soon as we have a confirmation of the date, time and room number.
The General Assembly details and agenda will be sent out to all members in a few weeks. All members will receive a direct email on this and it will also be noted on the HMEI website.

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HMEI Council positions up for nominations and re-election

The three year terms of all the HMEI Council positions will end this year. Re-elections for these positions will take place at the 2005 HMEI General Assembly during the METEOREX 2005. 

Those wishing to nominate or re-nominate, themselves for positions or those wishing to nominate someone else, will need to contact the HMEI Secretariat at hmei@wmo.int for information on the nomination process and forms for nominations. 
All terms will be for three years from the General Assembly of the HMEI in 2005 until the General Assembly of HMEI in 2008. 
All nominees must be from companies who are current financial members of HMEI at the time of nomination and election. For the position to remain valid for that person, their company must continue to be a financial member of HMEI for the period of the term. 

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13th session of the CBS (CBS-XIII), St. Petersburg, Russian Federation, 23 February - 3 March 2005

HMEI will be represented at this session by: 
HMEI Chairman, Ben Dieterink - Kipp & Zonen
and
HMEI Vice- Chairman, Jan Horhammer -Viasala Oyj
Any other HMEI Members interested in attending please contact the HMEI Executive Secretary .
Information on this conference is available at
http://www.wmo.ch/web/www/BAS/CBS-info.html

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JCOMM Ship Observations Team, March 2005, France

The Joint WMO/IOC Commission for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology (JCOMM) Ship Observations Team, Third Session (SOT- III), will be held on 7-12 March 2005, in Brest, France.
SOT-II established an Expert Group on Instrument Testing. This meeting will be presented with a report by that Expert Group.  The meeting will be invited to consider the proposals of the Expert Group and, if possible, agree on JCOMM instrument evaluation and Intercomparison procedures.
For further information please go to: http://www.wmo.ch/web/aom/marprog/Forthcoming-Events/forthcoming-events.htm

Any HMEI member who would like to attend this meeting as an HMEI representative please contact the HMEI Executive Secretary by the first week in February on hmei@wmo.int

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Expert team on Remote Sensing Upper-Air Technology and Techniques, March 2005, Switzerland. 

The HMEI representative participants at the Expert Team (ET) on Remote Sensing Upper-Air Technology and Techniques to be held 14-17 March 2005 in Geneva, Switzerland to date are:
Florian Schmidmer - Graw Radiosondes
Randolph Ware - Radiometrics Corporation
Martti Husu - Vaisala Oyj

Other members interested in this meeting and in joining the B3 Expert Team please contact the HMEI Executive Secretary at hmei@wmo.int.

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HMEI NEW MEMBERS 
The Association of Hydro-Meteorological Equipment Industry welcomes the following companies as new HMEI members:

ATMOS sarl - France

DEGREANE HORIZON - France

GAMIC mbH - Germany

IPS METEOSTAR Inc. - USA

LSI Lastem s.r.l. - Italy

ORIENTAL ELECTRONICS, Inc. (ORI) - Japan

SKYE INSTRUMENTS Ltd. - UK

VCS Aktiengesellschaft - Germany

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New Member Information
This section provides information supplied by the member companies themselves. HMEI bears no responsibility for  this information. 

ATMOS sarl
ATMOS provides products in the areas of:
- numerical simulations
- system integration
- cloud cover measurement
- atmospheric radiations measurement

DEGREANE HORIZON
Please go to the Degreane Horizon website, on the link from their name, for information.

GAMIC mbH
GAMIC creates and markets meteorological Weather Radar, data processing and networked systems since 1988.Our current product line comprises:
· Radar systems: X, C, S – band, stationary and mobile – Magnetron, Klystron, TWT, Solid-State – in cooperation with experienced sensor manufacturers
· Data systems for weather and ATC radar in X-, C-, S-Band, Magnetron, Klystron and solid-state including Dual Polarization option
· Radar Signal Processor Line GSP 04 – ENIGMA(TM), Digital Doppler receivers
· Radar Digitalization and Radar Dopplerization Upgrade Kits· Real Time Radar Processing: FROG RDC-RT, ROW, ROW, RSM
· PROGEN: Comprehensive Radar Product Algorithms for Meteorology, Hydrology, ATC 
· Visualization, COLIBRI II, WeatherWizard 
· Data dissemination and wide area network message switching, MURAN 
· Radar Compositing , MOSAIC; Internet Server for Data access; Radar data based Nowcasting, STP & GSF; Weather Decision Aid Systems, WWARN; Multi-Weather-Sensor Fusion, MSFUSE; Scientific Weather Sensor Processing, DLR-TOOLKIT;
· Primary ATC Radar Weather Channel Digital Doppler Receiver
· ASTERIX ATC console weather data extractor .

IPS METEOSTAR Inc.
IPS Meteostar Inc. (IPSM) provides environmental monitoring and commercial meteorological software; custom software and web page development, integration, and on-site support; and weather data and product services. Our products include Windows 2000, HP, SUN, and Linux Leading Environment Analysis and Display (LEADS) weather workstations and environmental monitoring systems; satellite and NOAAPort receivers; mapping, observation, and Homeland Security support systems; and subscription web pages. IPSM builds high-performance hardware and provides commercially available hardware. IPSM delivered the weather component for Lockheed Aircraft Operations Center systems and for worldwide Air Force Weather Squadrons. IPSM is delivering systems across Poland for the Institute of Meteorology and Water Management. Our systems operate in a 7 x 24 automated production mode. They support extensive interactive product generation. A complete set of automatically generated products is delivered with IPSM systems, or customers may define their own. We demonstrated our capabilities at the IPSM booth at AMS-85.

LSI Lastem s.r.l.
LASTEM is a LSI Lastem s.r.l. brand name for the manufacturing of meteorological instrumentation: data loggers, sensors, PC programs and accessories. The instrument range is designed to be assembled in “turn-key” automatic weather stations, or to be mounted as components of complex monitoring systems. The technical solutions chosen allows to obtain high quality standards, easy installation, low maintenance and re-calibration.
LASTEM equipment is useful in the following applications:
- Meteorological monitoring related to the measurement of atmospheric pollution and the dynamics of pollutants in the air
- Agro-meteorological applications
- Wind and solar monitoring in alternative energy forms
- Climatological studies
- Environmental impact evaluations.

ORIENTAL ELECTRONICS, Inc. (ORI)
Oriental Electronics (ORI) was established innovatively in 1973 as a venture capitalized company for research and development business. Today, ORI is one of leaders of an independent vendor of hardware and software specialized in telemetric, communication and control field of the weather related business in Japan. The innovative technologies of ORI on the Meteorological and Hydrological systems are highly ranked and attract wide and unique variety of partners in public and private sectors. The Meteorological Information Distribution Server System utilizing on the Internet Technology, is now drawing people's attention as the key technology supporting the real time weather information service such as the Message Switching System on the GTS network. ORI has served a solid base of clients with unique and up-to-date from analogue to digital signal processing applications in the fields of telemetric, control and communication applications related to Hydro-Meteorological world. Our products consist of analogue and digital systems ranging from sensor and RF circuits up to digital signal processing, network technique, computer BIOS and device driver, firmware and also application software.

SKYE INSTRUMENTS Ltd.
Since 1983 Skye has been designing and manufacturing sensors and systems for environmental and meteorological monitoring. We are a friendly, family run company, based in Mid-Wales in the UK and we have gained a worthy reputation world-wide in instrumentation.
All products are designed and manufactured within the company and Skye is very proud of its high standard of design and production. All products are built to a high specification, offering the levels of precision required for accurate research work, yet are easy to use for technical and non-technical customers alike. All products are robust, durable and highly portable.
Our dedicated and highly trained staff offer excellent sales support, advice and after-sales service to all customers throughout the world. We can offer bespoke instrumentation for a wide variety of applications and welcome unusual requests. 
Our wide product range is exported to nearly every country in the world. 
Products include: MiniMet Automatic Weather Station, WindHog wind monitoring system, relative humidity and temperature probes, barometric pressure sensors, DataHog data-logging systems, and a wide range of light sensors including pyranometers, UV and PAR sensors.

VCS Aktiengesellschaft
VCS AG is a provider of information and communication solutions for the business segments of media broadcasting, space industry and earth observation, and is exceedingly successful with its solutions in Germany, Europe and the world. Each of the segments is operated by an independent business unit. The business unit Space Communications (SPC) plans, develops and implements complex information and communication systems for the European space industry. Premier core activities consist in providing system solutions for the ground segments of satellite systems. The business unit Remote Sensing Technology (RST) is a leading world-wide supplier of system solutions and products for the reception and processing of weather satellite data. Based on a programme which is scalable according to customer requirements and consists of consulting, development and integration services, standard hardware and software products together with maintenance services, more than 150 customers world-wide are relying on VCS and its solutions.

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INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITIONS

The HMEI website in its Exhibitions page has a brief description and contact information of exhibitions which come to our attention which would be of interest to our members
Currently the page has information links regarding upcoming exhibitions including:

METEO EXPO IV International Exhibition - St Petersburg, Russia, Feb 23 - 25, 2005

The European Geosciences Union General Assembly, Vienna, Austria, 24 - 29 April 2005.

The International Weather Forecast Expo & Conference 2005 (IWFEX'05) 24- 26 May 2005, Abu Dhabi.

9th International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences (IAMAS) Scientific Assembly, 2-11 August 2005, Beijing, China.

The Royal Meteorological Society Conference 2005, University of Exeter UK, 11 - 16 September 2005.

The 5th Annual Meeting of the European Meteorological Society, 12-16 September 2005, Utrecht, The Netherlands.

The International Workshop on Flash Flood Forecasting, September 19-23,- Costa Rica.

The 3rd China International Exhibition on Meteorological Technology and Equipment and The China Forum and Exhibition on Lightning Protection Technology and Equipment, 26-28 October 2005, Shanghai, China.

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