WIGOS related matters9-11 September, Thimphu, Buthan

Singthong PathoummadyDeputy Director-General, Department of Meteorology and Hydrology

Email address: p.singthong@yahoo.com

Regional Workshop on Implementation of Weather and Climate-related Services in the

Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in Asia

(Lao People’s Democratic Republic)

Presentation

Outline of the presentation1. Introduction2. Organizational Chart3. Mission and Basic Info of Department of Meteorology and

hydrology4. Network of Observations within NMHS (current status)5. Network of Observations outside of Met Services (current status)6. Data collection, representation, exchange and management7. Data applications and examples8. Key achievements, opportunities & challenges (strength, weakness,

major difficulty areas, potential risks, etc)9. Future plans (new challenges and opportunities-forward looking)10. Key recommendations11. Summary

1. Introduction

Lao P D R

VietnamMyanmar

Cambodia

Thailand

China

V

i

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n

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� landlocked countrybordering with fiveneighboring countries;

� Lao PDR has been ranked asone LDC of WMO (RA II)’smembers, hence a small sizeNMHS with limited capacityin staff and budget;

� Facing various challenges inHRD and in scientificdevelopment.

1 Basic information of the country

• Lao P.D.R. is an inland country located in Indochina with about 1,700kmof length fromnorth to south. About 80% of the national land is composedof mountains and the Mekong River flows fromthe northern mountains tothe central and southern plains along the border shared withThailand. TheTotal population is around 6 millions of which the majority live in theplains or hilly areas stretching fromthe Mekong River or its tributarieswhich are directly and greatly damaged by floods or flash floods caused byadverse weather phenomena such as heavy rain due to the southwestmonsoon or typhoon/tropical depression coming fromthe South ChinaSea. On the other hand, there are years when Lao P.D.R. suffers fromextreme and serious droughts which have significant adverse impacts onagriculture, water transportation, access to water, etc. Aside fromagriculture which engages around 80% of the population, thepower, mine ,tourismand manufacturing industries are also some of the main industriesin Lao P.D.R. and all of themcan be significantly affected by weatherconditions. As a result, it can be said that there is a close relationshipbetween meteorology/hydrology and the socio-economy in Lao P.D.R.

2. Major historical meteorological disaster events

Typhoon Hitting Laos (2011)

Haima (June 24)

Nock-Ten (July30-31) Nelgue (October 6)

Nesat (October 1)

Haitang (September 27)

1. The Southwest Monsoon started earlierand became more active than usual.

2. Five Typhoons hit Lao PDR :Haima (June 24) and Nock-ten (July 30-31) hit the Northern and Central areascausing significant damages;

3. Stagnation of Monsoon TroughThe amount of precipitation increasedmainly in the Southern area duringthe second half of the monsoon season

<Precipitation in 2011>

Observation Station

Precipitation in 2011 (mm)

Comparison with Average

(%)

Luangprabang 2,650.5 190

Vientiane 2,395.3 140Savannakhet 1,730.6 120

Pakse 3,159.6 150

Annual Precipitation (Average & 2011)

In particular, July had a large amount ofrain in 2011. Monthly precipitation ofLuangprabang and Vientiane was morethan 600mm, and that of Pakse exceeded1,000mm, 2.6 times greater than theaverage.

Period Killed/Missing Affected DamagedCost of

damages

May - October 42 persons 429,954 persons 12 provinces1,764 Billion

LAKUS 220 million

3. Major National Economic Sectors relyingon Met Services

(1) Agriculture;

(2) Transportation , including Aviation;

(3) Hydropower Dams,

(4) Mekong River Commission Forecasting Center,

(5) National Disaster Management and Climate Change

sector;

(6) National Disaster Prevention and Control Committee;

(7) Public , government institutions and NGOs;

DMH Headquarters (at Vientiane capital)

� Department of Meteorology andHydrology (DMH) Lao PDR is onegovernment Agency under theauspice of Ministry of NaturalResources and Environment (MoNRE)

� Organizational Structure of DMH composes of 6 Divisions at Headquarters, 17 Hydro -Met Services at Provincial and stations at District level.

2. Organizational Chart

• Governance structure– Reporting lines (from NMHS to government)

– Partner parallel organization relevant to Met Services

– Internal structures (observing and telecommunication division/unit within your Met Services)

� Organizational Chart of DMHDirector General (1)

Deputy Director General (3)

Administrative -

Planning

Division (9)

Legislation & ICT Division (3)

Hydro-Met Services

& Stations at Provincial and District Level (157)

Weather

Forecast and

Aeronautical

Met. Division

(14)

Meteorological

Network and

Earthquake

Division (7)

Hydrological

Division (14)

Climatological

and Agro-Met

Division (19)

� Total staff = 227

� 70 at HQ, Vientiane

� 157 at provinces

Reporting Lines & Warnings Dissemination Network

12

Department of Meteorology

and Hydrology (DMH)

http://dmhlao.etllao.com

Government’s Office

Local

Governor’s

Office

District & Villagelevel

NDPCC + Line

ministries

NDMO

PDPCO

DDPCO

VDPC Unit

Radio

TVs

Newspapers

Hydro-met. Offices at Provinces

Local

Disaster Risk

Areas

Hydropower

dams

PNREOPNREOPNREOPNREO

MoNRE

- LNMC

- MRC

Aviation

Data Collection & Dissemination

13

DMH’s

Data Collection and Dissemination Center

http://dmhlao.etllao.com

ADSLInternet

128/

256kbps

WMO’sGTSRTH

Bangkok

FTP (TCP/IP) 64kbps

MTSATSatellite

Ground Receiving Station

CMACastSatellite

Receiving Station

C Band DopplerRADAR

RBSN & RBCN + SecondaryClimatic Sts.

48

Hydrological Stations

85

Earthquake Stations

2

Weather Forecast Center

Flood Forecast Center

Government; Public; End Users = Disaster Risk Management & EWS

HF Radio

VSAT

Data Flow to Users and Archiving

14

Secondary Climatic Stations

RBSN & RBCN

Synoptic Stations

Telecommunications Center at DMH’s HQ

Weather Forecast and

Flood Forecast

End Users & Public

Logbooks

Climate and Agro-

Met. Division

Hard Copies Storage

Archived Digitized Devices

Concerned End Users

on demands

RTH BangKok

Data Exchange via WMO’s Regional Meteorological Telecommunication Network in Region II (Asia)

Vientiane

Baghdad

Doha

Kuwait

Bahrain

Dhaka

Yangon

Kathmandu

Kabul

Karachi

Colombo

Male

Hanoi

Phnom Penh

PyongYangAshgabad

Macao

64K

Dushanbe

Almaty

NI

NI

NI

Seoul

NI

NI

64K

9.6-26.4K (V.34)

14.4-28.8K (V.34)

64K64K

50

50

50

50

200

64K

64K

100

75

1200

50

100

9.6K

Offenbach

Offenbach

CairoAlgiers

Moscow

Kuala Lumpur

Tashkent

Novosibirsk

Khabarovsk

Bangkok

F/R CIR<16/16K>

F/R CIR<16/16K>

Washington

NI

NI

19.2-24K(V.34)

24-19.2K (V.34)

19.2-24K (V.34)

Bishkek

64K

Singapore

RTH in Region II

NMC in Region II

Centre in other region

MTN circuitRegional circuitInterregional circuitAdditional circuit

Non-IP linkIP linkInternet E-mail transmission

NI No implementation

Tehran

Sanaa200

Hong Kong

Moscow

NI

F/R CIR<32/32K>

Tokyo

IMTN-MDCNCIR<32/768K>

Manila

Internet

Jeddah

Muscat

64K

64K

64K

Washington

ISDN 128K

28.8-9.6K (V.34)

via Moscow 14.4-28.8K (V.34)

64K

64K

Thimpu

New Delhi

NI

768K

64K

2.4K

75

64K

via Moscow

64K

100

Ulaanbaatar14.4K

Abu-Dhabi

1200

64K

9.6-26.4K (V.34)

9.6-26.4K (V.34)

Melbourne

Melbourne

IMTN-MDCNCIR<16/32K>

32K

CMAPCVSAT

64K

75

CMAPCVSAT

CMAPCVSAT

512K

MPLS

IMTN MDCNMPLS

IMTN MDCNMPLS

IMTN MDCNMPLS

IMTN MDCNMPLS

IMTN MDCNMPLS

MPLS

Internet

Internet Beijing

2M

2M128K

1M

2M

1M

128K

512K

2M

2M128K

512K

2M

MPLS

2M

128K

MPLS

2M

Internet

Internet

Internet

Internet

Internet

F/R CIR<16/16K>

F/R CIR<16/16K>

F/R CIR<16/16K>

F/R CIR<16/16K>

Internet

Internet

Internet

Internet

Internet

EUMETSAT

MPLS 2M2M

Toulouse

Internet

Lao P D R

3. DMH's Vision :(Simple, Service oriented)

a ). Professional in providing meteorological, hydrological, environmental and climate services in support of safety and sustainable development of the Lao community ;

b). Highly competent in issuing meteorological and hydrological warnings to reduce the loss of lif e and property during severe weather; and

c). Able to play an effective role in internation al and regional cooperation in the fields of meteorology and hydrology and Climate Service

� Mission :

(a) Collect and exchange meteorological and hydrologicaldata in accordance with WMO regulations for analysis,forecasting and warnings to the public on hazardousweather;

(b) Provide meteorological and hydrological data,information, forecasts and warnings to supportactivities of various sectors;

(c) Understanding of the country's weather, climate andhydrological situation; and further strengthenresearches for the advancement of meteorological andhydrological sciences;

(d) Engage in international and regional cooperation in thefields of meteorology, including climatology, hydrologyand seismology for the benefit of the nation;

� Strategy :� Set up Strategic Plan and prioritized Action

Plans:� DMH’s 2011 – 2015 Master Plan to be in line

with National 7 th Economic Development Planand the MoNRE’s Five Year Strategic Goals(2011 – 2015);

� To be harmonized with WMO Strategic Plan2012 – 2015, especially the focus of RA II (ASIA-PACIFIC) : 3 Societal Needs, 5 StrategicThrusts, 8 Expected Results. One of Prioritiesis “Establishment of a multi-hazard earlywarning system for DRR”;

4. Network of Observations within Met Services (current status-Cont.)

4.1 Surface stations:• Wind Vane & Annemometer;

• Thermometers: Maxi , Mini, Phychrometer;

• Barometer & Barograph;

• Rain Gauge;

• Sunshine duration & Radiation;

• Evaporation Pan & Piche;

• Soil depth thermometers;

– Comunication : Single Side Band Radio/Telephone

– Data collection: Taking notes by staff

Surface Observation

21

� RBSN = 19� RBCN = 4� Secondary

Climate = 29Typical meteo station with Conventional instruments

Meteorological Network in Lao PDR

22

�Rain Gauge stations in Lao PDR = 93

Classical manual type rain gauge

23

Hydrological Network� 85 Water gauges

Conventional Staff Gauge

Slope GaugeAssociated rain Gauge

24

Weather Monitoring

C Band Doppler Weather RADAR

25

8th Floor

1st Floor

6th Floor

Observation & Forecasting

Equipment:Operation, Control & Maintenance

High Data Rate Spread Spectrum Transceiver

(SST)

26

2.4GHz, Wireless Link

(Point to Point)

Radar Tower Site

DMH Headquarters

Air Traffic Control Tower Site

International Airport (Wattay)

Hi-speed Data TX & RX of 54Mbps

Main targeted ServiceFor Safety Air Navigation

Geostationary Satellite Receiving Systems

Satellite Ground Receiving StationGeostationary

27

IR1 ; IR2 ; IR3 ; IR4=WV ; VIS

CMACast (CMA) &

MTSAT (JMA)

5 channel imagers:

Hydrological Cycle Observation Stations (MRC - HYCOS )Automated data acquisition and telemetry communicat ion

28

Mekong = 3 stations1. Luangprabang2. Vientiane (km4)3. Pakse

Tributaries = 9 st.1. Muang Ngoy (Nam Ou)2. Muang Nan (Nam Khan)3. Phou Kout (Nam Ngum)4. Napae (Nam Phao)5. Xebangfai (Nam Xebangfai)

6. Mahaxai (Nam Xebangfai)7. Sobnam (Nam Xebanghieng)

8. Kengdone (Nam Xebanghieng)

9. Veunkhen (Nam Xekong)

1

2

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

3

Automatic data logger of HYCOS station

29

Acquisition of data from sensors & upload into GPRS network

30

30

Real time data from HYCOS Stations

HYCOS Station on

Mekong &

tributaries

Telemetry Mobile phone

Telemetry

Satellite

National DataTerminal/Hydmet

at DMH

Internet

MRC / FMMP

FTP server

MRC

FTP server

NMCs data

terminal

GPRS

Every 15mn

Earthquake Facilities� Under bilateral cooperation programme,

the government of China providedassistance to DMH Lao PDR, establishedtwo earthquake stations and one EQ DataCenter, including data communicationlink via Satellite (VSAT) .The implementation by China EarthquakeAdministration ( C E A ) had beenaccomplished in the end of 2009.

Location of EQ Stations and Data Center

32

Lao P.D.R

VietnamMyanmar

Cambodia

Thailand

China

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Station 1: LuangPrabang

Latitude : Longitude: Elevation

19º54’ N 102º09’ E 305m

Station 2: Lak Sao

Latitude : Longitude: Elevation

18º12’ N 104º59’ E 522m

Data Center: DMH Vientiane

Latitude : Longitude: Elevation

17º57’ N 102º40’ E 171m

� Earthquake Data Sharing Topology

Station 1

Station 2

Data center at Vientiane

Data center at Beijing

Real timeWaveform data(C E A’s VSAT)

e-mail / Internet

A E I Cand

Other Centers

e-mail / Internet

Dedicated

Link to be

established

Earthquake Station & Instruments

34

CTS-1 Very Broadband

Flat-to-velocity response

band at 3dB level:

360s～～～～0.02 s

Sensitivity: 2××××1000

V/m/s

EDSP software for

single station

BBAS-2 fore-balanced

accelerometer

Flat-to-acceleration response

band at 3dB level: 3600s～～～～

360s

Sensitivity: 2××××10000 V/m/s2

EDAS-24L6/EDAS-

IPU digitizer

Earthquake Data Center & Server

35

2009-10-1 , 19:56 , E101.45 , N20.43

Ms=4.1

4. Network of Observations within Met Services (current status-Cont.)

4.2 Upper-air and remote sensing stations

4.2.1 Radiosonde/pilot-balloon stations : Not availbe

4.2.2 Radar station: only one Doppler Type, C Band

located at DMH HQ, Vientiane

5. Network of Observations outside Met Services (current status)

Not available Observation network outside NMHS

6. Data collection, representation, exchange, and management

6. Knowledge about WIS and progress in WIS implementation

– WIS discovery metadata• To be one NC, associated to GISC Tokyo: (but not yet operate)

• Capacity development : staff attended short training on WIS at JMA

– WIS National focal point : Assigned oe DMH staff

– Country’s Principal GISC : Tokyo; and Associated GISC: Beijing

– Communication systems at national/international levels• Access to Internet, GTS

– Migration to TDCF (reliance on TAC messages)• Handling of messages : TAC messages to RTH Bangkok (TRANSMET)

• Visualisation of data : SYNERGIE (Meteo France)Ref: Regional WIS Implementation Plans http://wis.wmo.int/folder=75

7. Data applications & examples

7.1 observational data utilization in real time disaster

monitoring :

• Water level and rainfall data are reported at 7:00am local time : (showing warning alarmand dangerouscriteria), satellite and radar data are also utilized;

7.2 data assimilation in NWP model : Not vailable

7.3 data utilization in climate monitoring

• Climatological data reported fromdomesticstations in addition to data received throgh GTS

7.4 data utilization in met services (for info)

• Meteorological data fromlocal synoptic stations at three hour interval in addition to data receivedthrough GTS, Satellite and radar data are alsoutilized;

• Products and forecasts fromother centers(NMHSs) are also utilized

7.5 data utilization in economic sectors:

• Statistical hydro-Met data and forecasts;

Utilization of products from

different NMHSs centers

CMA Cast and MICAPS

• DMH has started utilization of CMACast and MICAPS systems since early 2012, these information are used for weather monitoring and forecast:– Satellite information;– Rainfall estimation;– Weather map analysis;– NWP products

• CMA has transferred the knowledge to DMH during installation but it was very short time, therefore DMH would like to have more training about MICAPS

CMACast System in DMH-Lao PDR

Server-Receiving

Quick view Display MICAPS

Weather Analysis by using MICAPS

CMA products through Severe Weather Forecast Demonstration Project

T639L60

T213EPS

Typhoon EPS

Satellite Ensemble Forecasts -Stations

There are 5 menu:

There are 9 elements

8. Key achievements, opportunities and challenges

8.1 Key achievements :

– Strength : Be able to apply the strategic directive guidance

of government as well as strategic plan of RA II

– Recent developments :

• staff get trainings through WMO programmes;

• Signed MoUs with various partners, between NMHSs and

sponsors, e.g. World Bank, ADB, JICA, etc…and bilateral

Agreements;

8.2 New opportunities– WIGOS/WIS framework and implementation

plan/activities will certainly help resolve LDCs in regard the difficulties with big invesment for establishing each own observing and analysis facilities;

– GFCS, DRR, Capacity Development will help enhancing the capacity of NMHSs and increase the profile of DMH;

– There is a need to mainstream the GFCS and DRR into National Societal and economic development as New development opportunity

8.3 Major challenges– Weakness : limited capacity of staff– major difficulty areas : Low visibility of government

toward the financial support for development of DMH

– potential risks : Sustainability of facilities provided and installed in place which are initially supported by external sources ;

9. Future plans 5-10 year horizon9.1 GFCS, UNFCCC will be put into project-base or

action plan incorporating needs of other sectors for new

observational requirements;

9.2 New national economic sectors development:

hydropower and mining

9.3 Existing or potential future plans for improving

observation and telecommunication networks:

(i). World Bank supported Project: M=IWRMP & Network;

(ii) ADB supported Project: Establish NEWC & Network;

(iii). JICA : Improvement Hydro-Met Network, GTS, WIS

9.4 planned collaborations with partners: GEF/FAO on Agro-Met Network and seasonal climate prediction and service ;

10. Key recommendations10.1 The government and national parliament to urgently adopt and

promulgate the Law on Meteorology and Hydrology and its relevant Decrees for endorsement and applications;

10.2 Authorization for new recruitment of adequate staff in the areas , such as : Aeronautical meteorology, agro-meteorology, climate analysis and service delivery and Public Weather Service, NWP Models;– To strengthen collaboration with line-agencies of the National

Disaster Prevention and Control Committee for better coordination and taking actions of SOP;

10.3 WMO is requested to : • Facilitate successful implementation of VCP or Trust project,

such as KMA’s COMS;• Considering further support on other VCPs and Fellowships;• Continue support mobilization for efficient participation in the

RA II WIGOS Project to “Develop Support for NMHSs in Satellite Data, Products and Training” as well as other activities;

11. Summary

Summary:• 20 Synoptic stations

1 Radar station 29 Climatologial stations85 Hydrological stations93 Rain gauges

To address Critical gaps:• To renovate and install additional 50 Met stations and 50 hydro

stations • Renovate and add 200 rainfall stations• To enhance the forecasting techniques and Modelling and EWS• Collaborate with more stakeholders on hydro-meteorological data

sharing and service delivry