Outline of the Project Proposal

ByMR. MD. SHAH ALAM

DIRECTORBANGLADESH METEOROLOGICAL DEPARTMENT

 

1st Meeting of the INDARE-SCSeptember 29 to October 01, 2014

Geneva, Switzerland.

Bangladesh extends from 20°34’N to 26°38’N latitude and from 88°01’E to 92°41’E longitude. Except the hilly southeast, most of the country is a low-lying plain land. It is surrounded by the Assam Hills in the east, the Meghalaya Plateau in the north, the lofty Himalayas lying farther to the north. To its south lies the Bay of Bengal and to the west lie the plain land of West Bengal and the vast tract of the Gangetic Plain.

Geographical Location:

• The total land area: 147, 570 sq km.

• Total population: 163 million -2013

• Population density: 1174.33 per sq. Km.

• Ad. Division: Seven Divisions.

• Climate: Monsoon dominating tropical.

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Background  Geographical, geological and topographical aspects together make Bangladesh one of the most vulnerable to natural disasters especially tropical cyclones, flood, local severe storms (nor’westers and tornadoes).

In the face of global warming causing snow-melting and consequent sea-level rise arising out of the adverse effects of climate change, Bangladesh, as a low-lying country have to have better adaptation measures. For sustainable development of Bangladesh, BMD needs to generate Science based climate products and information to different sectors for their better planning.

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• Synoptic observatories : 35

• Pilot Observatories : 10

• Rawinsonde Observatories : 3

• Agromet observatories : 12

• Automatic Weather Station:7• Automatic Rain Gauge: 12

• Synoptic Observatory

• Pilot Balloon Observatory

• Rawinsonde Observatory

• Agromet Observatory

Location of Observatories

New 49 AWS are in the implementation stage

Existing Observational Facilities of BMD

11 Stations are part of the WMO Regional Basic Synoptic Network (RBSN). 7 stations of the WMO Regional Basic Climatological Network (RBCN). BMD.

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Paper Archive in BMD premises that have to be inventoried 

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Observers in Dhaka station

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Status of Climatic Data of Bangladesh• The  Climate  Division  of  BMD  archives  climatological  data.  The 

division receives a hand written paper form, called the CL-17 form that  contains  most  of  the  3-hourly  observational  data  on  a monthly  basis  from  each  station.    The  CL-17  is  keyed-in  by  the Climate  Division  in  text  format  and  processing  using  FORTRAN language. 

• Data  could  be  found  in  Bangladesh  but  also  in  UK,  India  and Pakistan considering historical aspect. Some data may have been lost during the history of BMD especially during the liberation war and different  relocations of BMD premises,  also during  the 1988 devastating flood.

• The implementation of the climate database management system (CliSys) started in BMD from October 2012 by experts from Meteo France International (MFI). According to WMO format Meta Data is being updated.

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Present Status of GTS and WIS 

TDCF Migration from TAC has been completed.

Present GTS bandwidth is 64kbps (has to be increased by BMD).

Two BMD personnel were attended at Regional Training Seminar

about WIS and BMD has assigned a focal point for WIS.

GISC New Delhi is nominated as principal GISC for BMD.

Presently BMD uses GISC Tokyo through Internet.

Need training and technical support to establish NC under WIS in BMD.

Discovery Metadata has been created with the help of WIS metadata tools, JMA

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Project Purpose and Objectives

•Government policy to support better ‘adaptation’ measures.•Provide  tailored  climate  products,  science-based  climate information to the policy makers for sustainable development.•Bangladesh should have better adaptation measures as it is most vulnerable  to  climate  change  and  natural  disasters  especially tropical  cyclones,  floods,  local  severe  storms  for  example nor’westers and tornadoes.•Bangladesh  Meteorological  Department  is  facing  challenges  to establish a  strong and modern data  foundation  for  implementing GFCS.

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Project Purpose and Objectives

•Provide appropriate historical and timely information on weather and  climate  extremes  to  support  the  implementation  of  early warning  systems  by  increasing  countries  resilience  to  these extreme weather events  .•Provide information on extremes such as heat waves, cold waves and  wet  spells  and  their  prediction,  thus  aiding  preventative measures and saving lives.•To prepare Climate information such as standardized precipitation indices,  monthly  maximum  consecutive  rainfall  for  various  time periods and consecutive dry days which is very essential for water resource management, flood management and agriculture sector.  

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Capacity building for data rescue. To consolidate data acquisition and data controls. To develop a new data import process, so that

CliSys will ingest directly the files produced by the key-entry operations to the 17 parameters in place of currently available 12 parameters for all stations.

Scope of the Project

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Surface Data:•Daily Climatological Reports (DCR)•Monthly Climatological Summaries (MCS)•Annual Climatological Publications (ACP)•Daily weather observation Reports (DWR)

Strip Charts (SC) Diagrams:•Rainfall Strip Charts (RSC)•Temperature Strip Charts (TSC)•Humidity Strip Charts (HSC)•Pressure Strip Charts (PSC)•Sunshine Diagram (SD)

Upper Air data:•Daily Rawin Sonde Report (DRSR)•Daily Wind Profile Report (DWPR)•Monthly Radio-Sonde Summary (MRSS)•Monthly Wind Profile Summary (MWPS)•Annual Upper Air Publication (AUAP)

Preparation of Standard digital Climatological Records for all stations: 

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Marine Climatological Archives:

• Marine Climatological Summaries (MCS) Other type of archives:• Daily weather maps (surface and altitude)• Weather observations reports (METAR, SYNOP, CLIMAT,…….)

Others to be specified:• Satellite data, Radar data

Agro-Meteorological Data:• The database (CDMS) have to be extended with agro-meteorological data.

Products Implementation:• CLIMAT message in TAC and TDCF• World Weather Records• CLIMAT Bulletin in quasi real-time• Map of interpolated data with Normals

Preparation of Standard Digital Climatological Records for all stations: 

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Duration and Cost of the Project:

Duration and cost of project is to be determined after assessment by

expert / consultant through WMO assistance.

The implementation of a Data Rescue and homogenization project is essential in BMD. This could be initiated by an expert mission from the WMO or a National Meteorological Service specialized in this field. As such, it would be very beneficial for BMD if WMO could provide necessary assistance in the form of financial and technical assistance to BMD so that the Data Rescue and Homogenization Project can be taken up and successfully implemented in the near future.

Conclusion

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THANK YOU

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