Supporting Developing Countries in Aeronautical Meteorological Service
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On 6-8 March this year, the Observatory's C.M.Shun, Senior Scientific Officer, was invited by the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) to attend the International Seminar on Aeronautical Meteorological Service in Beijing. The seminar was organized jointly by CMA and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Apart from delivering a lecture to share the experience of Hong Kong with some 20 participants from 15 Asian countries / territories including Nepal, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia, Mr. Shun also participated in the opening ceremony to declare the quasi-operational launch of the Asian Aeronautical Meteorology Service website ( www.aamets.org) (Figures 1 and 2). This website is the result of a decision by WMO in December 2004 to establish in Asia a pilot project on the aeronautical meteorology programme. Through this website, developing countries within the region are able to obtain guidance forecast products, thus enhancing their capabilities in aviation meteorological services. At present, Cambodia, Myanmar, Iran, Yemen, Laos, Nepal and Mongolia have started to provide aviation meteorological services within their countries using this website. This website was developed through joint efforts of CMA, Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), WMO and the Hong Kong Observatory. It provides various guidance products including numerical weather forecasts, meteorological satellite and radar imageries. During the three-day seminar, aviation weather experts from the United Kingdom, Japan, ICAO, WMO and the Mainland delivered many lectures, introducing the participants to aviation weather forecasting techniques, applications of the products on the website, etc. Before closing the seminar, the participants also discussed the contents of the Asian Aeronautical Meteorology Service website and provided many suggestions, hoping that more specialized products could be provided on the website for use in their day-to-day aviation weather operations. |
Figure 1: A guidance product on the Asian Aeronautical Meteorology Service
Figure 2: Zhen Guoguang (middle), Deputy Administrator* of the China Meteorological Administration, Zhou Yizhou (second from the right), Deputy Director General of Air Traffic Management Bureau, Civil Aviation Administration of China, Dr Herbert Puempel (second from the left) of WMO, Dimitar Ivanov (first from the left) of ICAO and Mr. Shun officiating at the opening ceremony |
