14 Weather Monitoring


HMEI member representatives are and/or have been involved with several ISO standard setting working groups (WG):


ISO TC 8/SC 6/WG 13 • Ships and marine technology — Marine wind vane and anemometers


ISO/TC 146/SC 5/WG 6 • Air quality/Meteorology - Ground-based remote sensing of visual range by lidar


• Air quality/Meteorology - Doppler wind lidar • Air quality/Meteorology - Siting Classification


The standard for marine windvane and anemometers and the standard for ground-based remote sensing of visual range by lidar have both now been approved and adopted for operational use.


Since 2003, HMEI’s close collaboration with WMO has included many discussions on an unofficial basis, particularly between the CIMO Secretariat and the HMEI Secretariat, about the need perceived by HMEI for official standards for the industry rather than depending on the recommendations from the CIMO Guide. HMEI considered that the CIMO Guide recommendations did not have the strength that industry standards, particularly those approved through ISO, would have. HMEI saw ISO standards as having industry credibility. Manufacturers who can make instruments and equipment to accredited ISO standards have the potential to make equipment in a larger number, and therefore at a lower cost per item, and be secure in the knowledge that the instruments and equipment will have a market because they fulfil the accredited level sought by buyers. In the past instruments and equipment were more likely to be made in specific amounts as needed, fitting individual specifications which buyers selected, or not, from the recommendations of the CIMO Guide. Alternatively instrumentation and equipment was procured from off the shelf offerings from the manufactures, which may or may not have accorded with the CIMO Guide.


HMEI has been very pleased to see that since 2008 WMO has become an ISO recognised international standardisation body, with procedures for the “accelerated adoption of WMO documents as ISO standards” 1


.


However well established the standards and guidelines for measurements are conceived, there remains the question of how do we know if an instrument or piece of equipment truly meets this standard? One of the classic ways of making this known is by


1WMO Info Note 47, www.wmo.int/pages/mediacentre/infonotes/info_47_en.html


Intercomparisons. Equipment and instrumentation can be compared in rigorous parallel conditions, with well established parameters, to determine to what level and accuracy the equipment or instrument measures and how it compares with others of its kind. HMEI and its members have been greatly committed over the years to participating in various Intercomparisons; especially those conducted under the auspices of WMO, whose methodology and rigorousness are well founded and respected.


It is to be noted that many current members of HMEI have been involved with WMO Intercomparisons for years before the inception of HMEI, which is a mark of their integrity as manufacturers and their dedication to unbiased scientific knowledge about their instruments.


Previous to the formation of the Association of HMEI, WMO Intercomparisons were restricted to those instruments in operational use in meteorological services and that were nominated for comparison by a WMO member meteorological service. However, with the collaboration of HMEI with WMO, HMEI has sought expansion of the involvement of manufacturers in the Intercomparisons. HMEI is now able to nominate HMEI member instruments for the WMO Intercomparisons. This has the advantage of expanding the knowledge of the quality of instrumentation by manufacturers outside the current range of those used by meteorological services. Further it has allowed instruments being newly developed to be included in the Intercomparisons; thus encouraging manufacturers to meet WMO’s stated need to explore new and better solutions and data to meet requirements for predicting changes in the world’s climate.


HMEI has facilitated the involvement of its members in the following Intercomparisons:


• WMO Solid Precipitation Inter-Comparison Experiment (SPICE), Canada, 2012. (This is a follow up Intercomparison of screens, temperature and humidity sensors to be held in the Arctic.)


• 10th International and Regional Pyrheliometer Intercomparison, Switzerland, September-October 2005.


• WMO Field Intercomparison of Rainfall Intensity Instruments, Vigna di Valle, Italy, mid 2007-mid 2008.


• LUAMI (Lindenberg Upper-Air Methods Intercomparison) Campaign, Germany, November 2008.


• WMO Combined Intercomparison of Thermometer


Screens/Shields in conjunction with Humidity Measuring Instruments, Algeria, mid 2008-mid 2009.


• WMO Intercomparison of Radiosondes, Yangjiang, China, July 2010.


HMEI members will also be involved in the following upcoming Intercomparisons:


• WMO Solid Precipitation Inter-Comparison Experiment (SPICE), Canada, 2012.


This is a follow up Intercomparison of screens, temperature and humidity sensors to be held in the Arctic.


• RQQI - Radar Quality Control and Quantitative Precipitation Intercomparison, chaired by Canada.


HMEI continues to suggest and support further extensions to the WMO Intercomparison program, with the aim of constantly improving the accuracy and reliability of scientific ‘Weather, Water and Climate’ observations.


About the Association of Hydro-Meteorological Equipment Industry (HMEI):


HMEI is an association originally formed at the suggestion of the then Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), to facilitate interaction between WMO and private-industry manufacturers of instruments.


HMEI has a head office located in the WMO building in Geneva. However it is an independent non-profit association, funded only by its members.


HMEI promotes the perspective of the private industry makers of instruments, equipment and systems in the meteorological, hydrological, environmental, climate and related fields, who are its members.


HMEI particularly represents the hydro-meteorological instruments, equipment and systems industry views on standards by its liaison statuses with WMO since 2002 and with ISO since 2004.


To contact HMEI our email is hmei@wmo.int. For more information about HMEI see our website at www.hydrometeoindustry.org


Customisable Weather Monitoring Solutions


Richard Paul Russell (UK) is a manufacturer of customised weather monitoring solutions. They manufacturer various different products including hand-held weather meters and remote weather monitoring systems where power is at a premium. Options include data logging with the SpaceLogger. W10; meteorological data is time-stamped and conveniently stored onto a removable SD card, so no PC hook-up is required in the field.


In addition live data can be broadcast via radio link back to base and viewed on the rugged WS-15A Display. This provides an easy-to-read digital reading showing the full range of weather information. The WS-15A Display Unit includes a configurable high/low wind speed alarm and RS232 data output.


Reader Reply Card No.


Raingauge Manufacturers Expand to New Premises


After 15 years based at the Business & Innovation Centre in Sunderland, Environmental Measurements Ltd (EML) have moved to brand new premises in North Shields on the outskirts of Newcastle, UK. At 3300 sq.ft. the new premises are almost 3 times


larger than the previous premises in Sunderland and offer EML the extra capacity required for the Company’s future growth plans. The new premises were visited recently by the Elected Mayor of North Tyneside, Mrs Linda Arkley, seen in the picture with the Company’s General Manager and Technical Director Mark Dutton (centre) looking at some of the 67-ARG100 raingauges in the final stages of assembly prior to despatch to Singapore for installation on the Provision of Hydrometric and Hydro-Meteorological Services Stormwater Management project.


The Singapore order is just one of a number of significant overseas orders received by EML recently for their range of precipitation sensors. Others include an order for 55-ARG100 raingauges for the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA) in France; an order for 20-rain monitoring systems incorporating the ARG100 raingauge and DT2 data logger for a major hydrological project in Burma; and an order from EML’s Russian partner, Lomo Meteo of St Petersburg for 20-UPG1000 universal precipitation/snow gauges to be delivered in 2013.


EML is now one of the largest raingauge manufacturers in Europe and it is estimated that well over 20,000 of their ARG100 aerodynamic rain gauges are now installed worldwide.


Reader Reply Card No. 48 IET May / June 2012 www.envirotech-online.com Reader Reply Card No. 49 47


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