Voluntary Cooperation Work

1. Voluntary Cooperation Work Richard Smout, John Nash, Jeremy Gillham, Mark Smees and Steve Palmer

2. GOS / GUAN Support • Radiosonde ground station upgrades, new installations, evaluations and training:- • Pristina, Kosovo October 2003 • Gan, Maldives September 2004 • Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania October 2004 • Yerevan, Armenia March 2005 • Seychelles, June 2005 • Nairobi, Kenya July 2006 • Addis Ababa, Ethiopia August 2006

3. GOS / GUAN Support • At all sites manual point selection was introduced, replacing the automatic version. • Automatic selection has a tendency to introduce biases! • Manual point selection was further verified by introducing a basic Tephigram plotting software. • A hydrogen safety brief was also given and potential hazards were explained.

4. Pristina Kosovo • Any issues regarding observations applying corrections and taking readings were resolved. • Two Vaisala DigiCORA III GPS ground stations installed. • Observers and forecasters were trained on the operation of the system.

5. Pristina Kosovo

6. Gan Maldives • Vaisala DigiCORA III GPS ground station installed. • Observers and supervisors were trained on the operation of the system. • Two PCs were installed which allowed two people to train at the same time by running ‘simulation ascents’.

7. Gan Maldives

8. Gan Maldives

9. Dar Es Salaam • Richard Thigpen (GCOS Implementation Project Manager) approached the Met Office to assess the suitability of the Intermet IMS1500 radio-theodolite installed at Dar Es Salaam international airport. • Initially there were problems with the ground station hardware. Whilst the engineers from America and South Africa resolved the issues the local staff were given practical training on radiosonde preparation and data analysis, using a portable Vaisala system supplied by the UK Met Office.

10. Dar Es Salaam • Once the radio-theodolite was operating the local staff started an intensive training schedule allowing them to become very proficient in the use of the new ground station. • A number of operational problems were overcome, acquiring the radiosonde below the theodolite and temp message coding. • The result was that the IMS1500 radio-theodolite was fit for purpose.

12. Yerevan, Armenia • Customs problems delayed the installation of a Vaisala DigiCORA III GPS ground station from January to March 2005. • Fortunately for the UK team this meant that the temperature was more conducive to working outside. • The Vaisala MW11 donated parts to the SPS220 sounding sub-processor.

13. Yerevan, Armenia

14. Seychelles • The Seychelles already possessed a Vaisala MW15 sounding sub-processor. • The main processing unit was upgraded with software and the ‘mother board’ was modified to fly the RS92 GPS radiosonde. • Training followed the now familiar well established method. • Operating instructions were modified at each location to allow for minor variations in local operating practices and procedures.

16. Nairobi and Addis Ababa • Customs problems delayed the upgrades by two months. • Both stations had Vaisala MW12 ground stations which were upgraded to MW15s. The upgrade required the GPS and main processing unit (MPU13) cards from the old systems. • The MPU13 was upgraded to the latest version by replacing 3 on board program chips. • Technical staff were shown the upgrade process and care and maintenance procedures were also explained.

17. Recommendations – Addis Ababa

18. Recommendations – Addis Ababa

19. Joined up thinking! • The workshop held in Argentina in May 2005 prepared the UK team responsible for upgrading Nairobi and Addis Ababa extremely well. • Questions such as how does the humidity sensor work are comprehensively explained in one of the documents presented at the work shop? • Copies of these documents are now carried as standard and made available on CDs along with all manuals used and prepared during an upgrade. • These documents are now reaching those who can benefit most, observers and radiosonde operators!

20. Training • Training is a particular issue to the developing countries! • The workshops have proved to be a very effective means of delivering training! • Of course such instructions and guides are an essential part of any Quality Management System.

21. Conclusions • The site visits showed common problems with training of the operations staff. In particular, there is a need to organise training and instructions for the observers in a systematic way. Often the main training route was on-the-job verbally from one observer to another; inevitably important issues are overlooked or bad practices institutionalised.

22. Conclusions • There is a need for practical instruction manuals which cover the whole process of preparing the equipment, making the sounding, coding and sending the observations. • A set of guides was prepared as part of the training workshops, but there is a need for these to be amplified, and especially for them to be adapted with local information at every station, to be made easily available to the observers at their place of work, and to be kept up to date.

23. And finally! Any questions?