Events
WIGOS workshop for RA-VI with focus on marine meteorological and oceanographic observing requirements [OBS]
Split, 5-7 September 2016
World Meteorological Organization (WMO)'s Regional Association VI (Europe) workshop for the implementation of the new WMO Integrated Global Observing System (WIGOS) will take place in Split 5-7 September 2016. The objective of the workshop is to satisfy the requirements needed for unification and quality control of maritime meteorological and oceanographic observing, especially in the Adriatic.
The workshop is organised by the WMO, the Meteorological and Hydrological Service (DHMZ) and the Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries (IZOR) and will be delivered by top-class experts from international and European organisations and associations (WMO, JCOMM, EUMETNET, EuroGOOS, EMODnet, SeeDataNet). Representatives of all Adriatic countries, plus Greece, Spain and Turkey, will attend the workshop.
The new system WIGOS is a technological upgrade of the existing Global Observing System (GOS) and a technological breakthrough that fully integrates, harmonises, standardises, coordinates and facilitates the interoperability of national meteorological and hydrological services and their partner organisations.
By implementing the WIGOS, Croatia will unite maritime meteorological and oceanographic observing and other maritime meteorological and oceanographic information of the DHMZ, IZOR, Hydrographic Institute of the Republic of Croatia, Department of Geophysics of Faculty of Science of University of Zagreb,, Plovputa and the Ruđer Bošković Institute. Observing infrastructure and data and product production will thus be optimised, the risk of observing system duplication will be eliminated, and the efficiency and profitability of the system will be improved. For the customers, this will mean simple access to unified high-reliability maritime meteorological and oceanographic data, which is of particular importance for decision makers at all levels.
Further information about workshop are available here.
It is interesting that the WMO adopted the first document about the WIGOS at a meeting of its Commission for Basic Systems in Dubrovnik in 2009. It is also worth mentioning that the Informal Conference of South-East European NHMS Directors (ICSEED) accepted the DHMZ's initiative to set up a maritime meteorology excellence centre for the Adriatic and to build the Regional Maritime Meteorology Centre, three years earlier, in 2006, also in Dubrovnik.
In line with this initiative, the DHMZ organised a meeting of all partners in the segment of maritime meteorology and oceanography in Postrana near Split, also in 2006. The Postrana meeting set the foundations for cooperation in maritime meteorology and oceanography. It had been one of the first meetings of the kind in the world. The informal agreement on observing system optimization through the management of observing infrastructure of common interest in the Adriatic, which would result in system optimization, no duplication, and lower data production and equipment maintenance costs, was thus established ten years ago.
The national maritime meteorology and oceanography component was reinforced through continued cooperation of the Postrana partners, giving Croatia the status of a respectable international partner, and resulting in the establishment of the DCPC (Data Collection and Production Centre) of the Maritime Meteorology Centre for the Adriatic, which is a part of the new WMO Information System (WIS). The DHMZ's initiative was materialized this year when the Postrana partners signed a cooperation agreement under the auspices of the Ministry of the Maritime Affaires, Transport and Infrastructure, and also through participation in the WIGOS workshop in Split.