Outcome of July 2011 Meeting

1. Outcome of July 2011 Meeting Benjamin Lamptey, PhD (Meteorologist) Regional Maritime University Accra Ghana bllamptey@gmail.com RC THORPEX-Africa Meeting, May 8-10, 2012, Geneva, Switzerland

2. Outcomes (1) • What will an optimal observational network look like in Africa? • Need to Engage people at higher levels • ECMWF website for free raw products – Dave Burridge • Use the data to generate products and display on a website • Develop scripts to automate downloading data, generating products • Evaluate these products – For example on the capability to produce HIW • Use these to train people in the Met Services

3. Outcomes (2) • Deliver operational products and put a research spin on it • Need to train people in the Meteorological Agencies • Tools, ensemble data, post-processing, evaluation • Korean Meteorological agency (or other funding agencies) – what do we want them to do for us?

4. Outcomes (3) • Need to be innovative to make THORPEX-Africa work on the continent. A challenge in South Africa is the loyalty to Southern Hemisphere THORPEX and THORPEX-Africa • Way forward is to put a research twist on operational activities • Reporting close to real-time on HIW events • Reporting close to real-time on verification issues on HIW events • Encourage collaboration between universities and Met Services at the country level • If resources are available, get universities and Met Services to jointly manage projects. Funding postdocs/PhD and masters students • Funding for Postdocs/PhD - The GEO approach is one way. Have THORPEX-Africa on the GEO tasks sheet and when the call comes out, it gives THORPEX-Africa to bid. • Before the real-time reporting and verification of HIW, there should be a report of work done on various case studies • Case studies need to be made known to larger THORPEX community

5. Outcomes (4) • THORPEX-Africa should continue to work within the THORPEX framework. • THORPEX-Africa should collect information of committee members every year (regularly) • Working group (TIGGE, PDP, etc) members/leaders should help • Working group from other regions could also help

6. Outcomes (5) • Science symposium have not been organized in Africa • Could regular science meetings be introduced • CNRM is constantly asking what they can do to help with regards to training, case studies, etc • THORPEX-Africa needs to link more and interact with the THORPEX working groups

7. NMHSs (1) • What are the critical issues that you in the Met Services (in Africa) will like to be addressed (in addition to the case studies)? • THORPEX-Africa to generate operational products for use by NMHSs (using ECMWF raw products website – use, evaluate and submit monthly report • Important to establish probabilistic forecast and move away from deterministic forecast (see TPARC website)

8. NMHSs(2) • NMHSs should request access to TIGGE data without time-delay • TIGGE WG wants to join SWFDP (operational side) – Good framework to obtain feedback on their products

9. THORPEX-Africa and AMMA • AMMA II intends to work on a seamless time-scale so THORPEX-Africa will take care of the short term • There are sand and dust issues in AMMA • Need to have capacity building on sand and dust storm (relevant for health, air quality, aviation, etc) training in West Africa by WMO (SDS-WAS?)

10. Resources Issues (1) • More of human resource than money. Sometimes infrastructure • Regional Centers – World moving towards regional centers generating products for the region. So use apply for funding on regional basis? • Could THORPEX obtain funds to support a postdoc or two for a few years?

11. Resources Issues (2) • Ben and Aida to have access to southern Africa SWFDP website – to see what products are generated regularly on a daily basis • Can West African Met services have a framework similar to SWFDP? • Can TIGGE WG generate products for Africa? • First step, develop an initial website to host the products? • Training session on TIGGE/ensemble forecasting for Met Services/Universities while the website to be hosted by Senegal for the products is ongoing

12. Resources Issues (3) • GEO call for proposals • Someone from USAID to help push this • Spain or Korea to be influenced to go ahead with capacity building • How do we get dedicated people? • How can the HIWIS be tied with GEO infrastructure in and TIGGE data? • For example, can data be available through GEO Portal? • GEO framework to be brought to bear in two trans boundary water basins (Volta and Nile) in Africa through AWCCI. Forecast products will be needed for prediction. There will be some funding associated with this activity

13. Resources Issues (4) • Connect to WASCAL to see if Germany could fund a project (Prof. Kruger) • Talking about products - might be useful to connect to the WGs • How do we showcase any small THORPEX-Africa activity that gets started? • For example, an African going on attachment at ECMWF • Might be more useful to specify the exact amount, number of PhDs, manpower, etc needed

14. Resources Issues (5) • Three objectives • Develop operational products and manage dedicated webpage • Develop HIW Information Systems • Predictability studies • GEO task sheet will have contain more details – output, deliverables, timelines, etc

15. Thank you for your attention