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TECO
Geneva, Switzerland, 4-6 December 2006
TECO during a break in
session some of the HMEI member representatives and the HMEI
Executive Secretary |
This report covers various items from the TECO considered of
particular interest to the HMEI Membership and is not intended to be
definitive.
Please see for the WMO
Final Report of the meeting when it is available.
Attendees
Please click here to see the
full participants list
Several HMEI members attended TECO:
Richard McKay - BIRAL
Francesco Chierici - CAE
Mark Dutton -
ENVIRONMENTAL MEASUREMENTS
Tony Peloe - DELTA-T DEVICES
Martin Malkomes
- GAMIC
Fred Clowney - INTERMET
Ben Dieterink - KIPP & ZONEN
Thomas Curran -
LOCKHEED
MARTIN SIPPICAN
Gerhard Pevny - LOGOTRONIC
Rolf Maag - METEOLABOR
Rémy Pepin-MODEM
Juraj Schwarz - MPS
Kurt Nemeth -OTT
Rudolf Düster - SEBA
Alessandra Liberto and Foeke Kuik
-
Telvent (Almos)
Kjell Forsén -
Vaisala OYJ
Jan Hörhammer - VAISALA
OYJ
Ari Meskanen -
VAISALA
OYJ
The HMEI Executive Secretary, Bruce Sumner, and Administrator, Christine
Charstone, also attended.
Bruce Sumner and Rudolf
Düster from SEBA at TECO
Opening at 10am
The Acting President of CIMO, Dr Canterford welcomed attendees and
noted the large number of participants at CIMO this year. Dr Canterford
stated that CIMO was a strong Commission, with a strong
outlook, as was indicated by the recognition of the work of CIMO at this year's WMO
Executive Council. At which Council, CIMO had been acknowledged as the
"cornerstone" of WMO. The Acting President then introduced
the Deputy Secretary General of WMO, Dr Hong Yan, to open
the meeting.
Dr Hong Yan then opened the TECO. In his speech Dr Hong noted the work and
cooperation between CIMO and HMEI and the useful participation, via
HMEI, of manufacturers in the work of the Commission.
OPENING KEYNOTE
Innovations in observing systems and practices to meet the evolving
needs of members
by Dr Canterford
Key points for Dr Canterford, the Acting President of CIMO's
presentation were:
§ Innovation
§ Collaboration, Integration and GEOS
§ Intercomparisons
§ Quality Management
§ Disaster Preparedness and Mitigation
The collaboration with Association of HMEI was
particularly mentioned and Dr Canterford noted that CIMO was fortunate
to have close cooperation with the Association. Standardisation and
calibration of instruments was particularly mentioned as important
issues that CIMO worked on. In talking about innovation in
instrumentation Dr Canterford noted the importance of various issues
including Interoperability. The work of Dr Nash and his co-authors for
the paper recording the work done at Dar-es-Salam with an Interoperable
Radiosonde System was noted and the authors of the paper were thanked for
their work.
Collaboration between NMHSs, HMEI and manufacturers was seen as a
benefit to all parties.
The fair and generous participation of manufacturers in Intercomparisons
was noted.
Dr Canterford stressed that CIMO would cover the
widest possible range of areas, beyond its traditional role in upper air
and surface instrumentation, in order to provide technical experts and
expertise to support WMO in achieving its goals.
In regard to Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, Dr
Canterford noted that there have been innovations in the development of
instruments for measurement of extreme conditions. For example:
§ anemometers and humidity probes
§
rainfall intensity instruments and pressure measurements for flood
forecasting
Manufacturers were encouraged to develop more robust instruments with
greater resilience to extreme weather.
Please see the
TECO Provisional Programme here
There is also the TECO Final Programme with live links to all documents at
http://www.wmo.int/web/www/IMOP/publications/IOM-94-TECO2006/PROGRAMME.HTML
SESSION 1 - NEW
DEVELOPMENTS AND OPERATIONAL EXPERIENCE WITH SURFACE OBSERVATION
TECHNOLOGY AND NATIONAL NETWORKS
Possibilities for expansion of surface weather
observing systems in East Africa by D. Mburu - Doc 1(6)
The East African Meteorological has now split into three separate
agencies, Uganda, Tanganyika and Kenya.
The tendency in East Africa is for automatic weather stations (AWS) to
be installed. Despite the initial expense of AWS, the reduced need for
maintenance appears to make them a more viable solution for the
situation in East Africa.
Status, evaluation and new developments of the
automated cloud observations in the Netherlands by W. Wauben et al.
- Doc1(7)
Netherlands presented a report on their upgrading of 140 stations to
fully automated stations. Some for synoptic, some for climatology and
some for aeronautical. For cloud height they use ceilometers. The use of
Nubiscope is being investigated for cloud heights.
SESSION 2 - NEW
DEVELOPMENTS AND OPERATIONAL EXPERIENCE WITH UPPER-AIR OBSERVATION
TECHNOLOGY
Keynote Presentation - New developments and operational experience with
upper-air observation technology by C. Gaffard
Please click here to see
this document in pdf format
This presentation covered various improvements in Radiosonde technology,
including the improvements that could be achieved by manufactures
following problems identified at Intercomparisons they are involved
with.
This UK Met office presentation showed the large
improvements in measurement,
processing and transmission while reducing the expenditure and running
cost of ground based upper air network. The presentation noted that
improvements in numerical weather and climate models need observations
of atmospheric variables such as clouds, winds, temperature and humidity
at increasingly high resolution in space and time.
New developments with
upper-air sounding in China by F. Li - Doc 2(1)
The new Chinese Radiosonde system as presented has specifications that
are fully CIMO compliant. The L-band Radiosonde is considered as similar
quality to the RS-80 previously manufacturered by Vaisala, but of even
better performance.
The new GZZ GPS Radiosonde that China is now producing has superior quality
to their L-band Radiosonde. China hopes to be able to participate,
with the GPS Radiosonde, in the next WMO Intercomparison of High Quality
Radiosondes.
China also advised that it is now upgrading its upper-air stations with
86 new radiosonde stations with L-band sondes in
sparse data areas. The remaining 40 stations will be upgraded directly
to GZZ GPS sondes during the next few years. They are also developing mobile systems for disaster
situations.
Developments in Japan
The Upper-Air network of Japan was described.
Japan has installed 31 wind profilers (Seawind/NOAA) operating at 1357
MHz. Twenty conventional radars will be converted to Doppler Radars so
as to provide additional Doppler velocity data into the Numerical
Weather Predication (NWP). Eighteen autosondes have been installed as
part of the network. These are a mix of Vaisala and Meisei instruments.
Japan is experimenting with ground-based microwave radiometers.
Developments in UK
The UK wind profiler network was described. The program consists of
integration of radars, radiosondes profiler data and AMDAR data, to
provide a complete coverage of upper-air data at all times
Developments in Germany
The German weather agency, DWD, talked about their experimenting with
the Thies Laser Precipitation Monitor.
SESSION 3 -
QUALITY MANAGEMENT, CALIBRATION, TESTING AND COMPARISON OF INSTRUMENTS
AND OBSERVING SYSTEMS
Keynote Presentation - Quality
management, calibration, testing and comparison of instruments and
observing systems by M. Leroy Chair CIMO ET SBII&CM
The need for good quality management across the whole range of
meteorological instrumentation and systems, was strongly emphasised in
this presentation.
Integrated quality management
functions on AWS-level - GELOG SG station manager by G. Pevny
(LOGOTRONIC)
Please click here to see
this document in pdf format
This presentation first emphasised the need more detailed for quality
guidelines in the CIMO guidelines. The presentation demonstrated the
quality control built into the GELOG SG station manager. Logotronic
believes this product to have the sort of quality control that would be
an good basis for future standards of QC requirements.
SESSION 4 -
TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER, CAPACITY BUILDING, TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE
REGIONAL INSTRUMENT CENTRES (RICs)
Keynote Presentation - Technology transfer, capacity
building, training and development of RICs by J. Gorman
Please click here to see
this document in pdf format
John Gorman from Australia made a very interesting
presentation on calibration/tractability, points included:
- The identification of transfer standards
- Traceability is generally given too low a priority at most NMHSs
- The need to develop travelling standards
- In his presentation he suggested that Metrology be added as an
application area to the HMEI Member Products Catalogue.
Training activities on meteorological instruments and observing systems
in Turkey by E. Büyübas - Doc 4(5)
Turkey made a presentation on their recent training activities. They
particularly invited weather radar manufacturers to make presentations
of their systems in future Turkish training sessions, as they considered
that important contributions had been made by the radar manufacturers'
previous participation at these events.
RA III Radiosonde Training Workshop, Buenos Aires
by J. Nash et al.- Doc 4(6)
John Nash made an informative presentation on the upper-air training
recently conducted in Buenos Aires. Three HMEI members attended,
InterMet, Modem and Vaisala, and contributed valuable information at
their training sessions. In particular the trainees were able to see
different sonde systems from the different manufacturers and this was
noted as being extremely important. Dr Nash mentioned that this was the
best training session he had been involved with and that the involvement
of the manufacturers was part of the reason for this success.
SESSION 5 - TRENDS AND CHALLENGES: NATIONAL TO INTERNATIONAL NETWORKS -
GLOBAL EARTH OBSERVING SYSTEMS (GEOSS), DISASTER PREVENTION AND
MITIGATION (BPM), WMO QUALITY MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK (QMF), WMO
INFORMATION SYSTEM (WIS)
Keynote Presentation - Tends and challenges: national
to international networks by J. Nash (CIMO Vice- President)
Click here to see this document in pdf format
Dr Nash made a number of key points and asked key questions in his
presentation. In particular he asked the audience to consider the
following points:
§
Quality Management; it needs to be ensured that QM is not just the
appearance of following the QM procedures, they need to actually work
and be effective.
§
Volunteerism, laudable as it may seem in principle, cannot guarantee the
responsibility being taken for the end product in the way paying for a
service does. It is not satisfactory, because there is no comeback where
there is no payment involved. More money needs to be invested to ensure
quality rather than depending on volunteers.
§
There is problem of CIMO creditability of (as is at times the case)
measurements and data are still not of adequate standard, i.e. as
specified by CIMO.
§
CIMO data and information must be well dissemination to the wider
community, including manufacturers, in order that the usefulness of
CIMO's data and information is maximised.
Australia's composite observing system: identifying
future directions by R. Atkinson, et al. - Doc 5(1)
Australia is looking to the future and boosting investment in new and
improved technologies.
The points that came out of this presentation are as follows:
§
Increase needed of network coverage, particularly in the surface
observations and radar
§
AMDAR observations continue to be essential in Australia for good
coverage
§
Wind Profilers need further evaluation as potential replacement for
Radar Windfinding
§
Automation is good, but there is nevertheless a critical need for
recruitment and training of observers
§
Radiosondes may be expensive to buy and maintain but are very much still
necessary
§
Quality Management needs to be introduced; Quality Assurance not just
Quality Control
§
Improved network design is needed
§
They are looking to ensure adherence to climate monitoring principles.
§
Data archiving and retrieval to be strengthened
§
Australia will be looking to CIMO to provide the guidance in many of
these matters
Integrated national in-situ observing network by
I. Zahumensky - Doc 5(3)
This presentation defined what an integrated network should be and
emphasised the potential importance and benefits of integrated systems
and networks.
The main components of integration involve the following steps:
§
User needs and and requirements
§
Knowledge of current national observing network
§
Required changes
§
Priorities
§
Integration design
§
Planning and strategy
§
Implementation
Challenges posed by the WMO Integrated Observing
System (IOS) by Dr J. Nash - Doc 5(5)
Some proposed points for the achievement of IOS, noted in the
presentation, were:
§
CIMO needs to become more involved in research and
development area
§
Substandard data needs to be addressed and rectified
§
Expertise needs to be made available for extensive needed
training
§
There needs to be investment in the development of
instruments and the science behind this
§
Via COST coordination of activities for integration
across Europe
§
More Testbed projects to be set up
In summing up the presentation noted that having collaborative projects
with CIMO, the scientific community and manufacturers, were essential for
the work for an Integrated Observing System.
Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) - Requirements
and realities of providing overlapping Radiosonde flight series data for
long-term climate continuity by C. Bower - Doc 5(6)
There are 6 Radiosonde manufacturers/providers used in GUAN.
Because of:
§
Radiosonde changes
§
Algorithm changes
§
Provider changes
It has been recommended that there be a one year overlapping study of
old versus new equipment.
However the feasibility of this recommendation is not good considering:
§
Difficulties due to changes in technology
§
For many countries/regions it is not affordable
§
No flight series have yet been performed
ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS
During the Round Table Discussions, the point was raised that CIMO
would like HMEI to promote the CIMO Guide to HMEI members, in order that
CIMO guidelines would be implemented throughout the designing of
instruments and systems.
HMEI Note:
The CIMO Guide has previously only been available by purchase from WMO. However it is now
going to be supplied free, from the CIMO website. There has been a link
from the HMEI website to the link for the CIMO Guide for some time,
under Technical Information. However it is worth HMEI Members noting
that the updated CIMO Guide, in draft format, is currently available at
this CIMO page link
www.wmo.int/web/www/IMOP/publications/WMO-8-Guide-contents.html
1st
Professor Dr Vilho Väisälä Award for the
Development and Implementation of the Instruments and Methods of
Observation
This was awarded
by the Secretary General of WMO, Michel Jarraud, and the CEO of Vaisala,
Kjell Forsén, to Messrs J. Nash, R.
Smout, M. Smees (all from the United Kingdom) and C. Bower (USA)
for the paper entitled “Dar-es-Salaam
demonstration test of IMS 1600 Integrated Upper Air System,
Dar-es-Salaam, 18-30 October 2004” published in
IOM Report No .82, TD-1265, May 2005.
This paper reported on the interoperable system from InterMet demonstrated in
Dar-es-Salaam.
Dr. Gill Ryall from the United Kingdom noted the importance of this paper, considering
the potential benefits of interoperable systems for the least developed
countries.
On accepting the award on behalf of the four authors, Dr John Nash
expressed his thanks to his colleagues and to Vaisala. He also thanked
those in Dar-es-Salaam who had helped with the demonstration. Dr Nash
went on to thank International Met Systems (InterMet) and Mr. Clowney
from that company. He said that there had been many discussions with Mr.
Clowney and that there was a good relationship with InterMet as the
producer of this system.
Closing of the conference
The conference was closed at 5.40pm, Wednesday 6th December, 2006.
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