Virtual Centre

1. Virtual Centre for Monitoring, Forecast and Early Warning of Severe Meteorological Events in the Region of Argentina, Brasil, Paraguay and Uruguay Expert Meeting on NMSs’ Participation on DRR Coordination Mechanisms and Early Warnig Systems Geneva, November 26-28, 2007 Dr. A. D. Moura & Dr. Lauro Fortes INMET / Brazil

2. Area of Interest Flash Floods: SP-2000 Catarina

3. Cascading process to distribute the meteorological information Information from global models ~ 7 days Regional Models ~ 2 days, satellite imagery, derived products Alerts from the global centers to regional centers Local models, radars ~ 3 hours to 1 day Alerts from the regional centers to national centers Feedback at each stage National centers distribute the information to local institutions

4. Virtual Centre for Monitoring, Forecast and Early Warning of Severe Meteorological Events in the Region of Argentina, Brasil, Paraguay and Uruguay BACKGROUND The IV Meeting of the Conference of Directors of Iberia-American NMHs held in Buenos Aires (Argentina) from 15 to 17 of November, 2006, in its recommendation number 10, stated its support to the actions towards the creation of a Virtual Centre for Monitoring, Forecasting and Early Warning of Severe Meteorological Events to be established among Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, having been agreed upon to promote the training of a group of experts of the participant countries.

5. Virtual Centre • Goals • Maintain a virtual cooperation network among the member countries. • Exchange information in order to allow for the optimization of the operational work of forecasting and monitoring of any prospective adverse event. • Create a data basis of adverse phenomena over the region. • Promote the capacity building of personnel from the participant institutions. • Exchange numerical models’ data in order to produce derived products. • Promote joint research activities.

6. Virtual Centre • Objectives • To support the forecast and monitoring of adverse meteorological phenomena over the South American Southeastern Region in order to contribute for the minimization of its social, economical and environmental impacts. • To increase to support to the participant countries’ Civil Defense Organizations • To improve the monitoring of phenomena by means of: • Automatic meteorological stations • Satellite data; • Radio sounders • Radars; • Ocean Buoys; • Real time efficient communication.

7. Virtual Centre The Region in Focus Data Collection

8. Virtual Centre Weather Forecast Centers from each participant institution produce their forecasts. In the case a severe event is perceived, there is a teleconference among all of them and a consensus is reached.

9. Virtual Centre Initial Concept VirtualCentre= the joint coordination of National Centers connected by an Intranet network that allows the participation of the forecasters working from their desks at their centers, in their hoe countries. INMET - Brasilia INPE/CPTEC - C. Paulista CHM - Rio de Janeiro EPAGRI-Ciram - Florianopolis

10. Virtual Centre Present Stage Regular and coordinated discussion among the centers making use of VisitView and Yahoo Messenger

11. Virtual Centre • Present Stage • Exchange of Warnings and Alerts by means of Institutional e-mails • agentii@cptec.inpe.br • centrovirtual@smm.mil.br • dtornalmet@adinet.com.uy • jcmn@smn.gov.ar • met2@climerh.rct-sc.br • opera@simepar.br • pronostico_dmh@dinac.gov.py • sepre.df@inmet.gov.br

12. Virtual Centre • Present Stage • Exchange of Alerts and Warnings through Institutional e-mails • sepre.df AVISO Nº 232 - INMET • DPT CNAP Advertencia Uruguay • Meteop –Epagri-Ciram – Previsão Climática • PrevisorCHM - avisos de mau tempo nrs 675 ao 680 • CPTEC Avisos Meteorológicos CPTEC/INPE • pronos@smn.gov.ar ALERTAS ARGENTINAS • pronosticos@meteorologia.gov.py Alertas Paraguay

13. Example of Meteorological Alert issued by INMET Virtual Centre

14. Virtual Centre Alert issued by SMN - Argentina

15. Virtual Centre Alert issued by SIMEPAR- PR-Brazil

16. Virtual Centre Training Course Instituto Nacional de Meteorologia - Spain Training of Forecasters for the Virtual Center for the Forecast of Severe Phenomena over the South-Southeast Area of South-America Place: MADRID, Spain (under the auspices of the INM of Spain) Period: from May 21 to May 31, 2007

17. Virtual Centre Training Instituto Nacional de Meteorologia - Spain CD-ROM

18. Virtual Centre • Participants of the Training Course • at INM, Madrid • Antonio Felipe Gil – Argentina • Claudio Mattio – Argentina • Marta Nora Castro –Argentina • Luiz Cavalcanti – Brasil - INMET • Márcia dos Santos Seabra – Brasil - INMET • Emma Giada Matschinske – Brasil – CHM • Marcelo Enrique Seluchi – Brasil –CPTEC • Cesar Augustus Assis Beneti – Brasil – SIMEPAR • Hugo José Braga – Brasil – EPAGRI-CIRAM • Eduardo Mingo – Paraguay • René Mariano Rodríguez Gómez - Uruguay

19. Virtual Centre Participants of the Training Course (photos at INM)

20. Virtual Centre • Future Activities • Meeting of Working Group for elaboration of the Project Final Report and to establish the responsibilities of each participant institution- • Establishment of INTRANET network linking the Member Centers • Other Issues • Identify new areas (for instance, area of severe phenomena common to Central America • Produce maps showing in different colors the types and intensity of observed phenomena • Integrate the network of RADARS available in the Region

21. Virtual Centre • Aknowledments • INM of Spain • WMO • SMA - Argentina • DINAC - Paraguay • Directoria de Meteorologia - Uruguay • INMET - Brazil • CPTEC • CHN – Brazilian Navy • CIRAM • SIMEPAR

22. Virtual Centre

23. Virtual Centre Thank you for your attention Antonio Divino Moura diretor.inmet@inmet.gov.br Lauro Tadeu Guimarães Fortes lauro.fortes@inmet.gov.br