RA IV/HC-XXX/Doc. 5(1), p. 1

WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION
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RA IV HURRICANE COMMITTEE
THIRTIETH SESSION
ORLANDO, USA
23TO 28 APRIL 2008 / RA IV/HC-XXX/Doc. 5(1)
(20.III.2008)
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ITEM 5
Original: ENGLISH

COORDINATION IN OPERATIONAL ASPECTS OF THE

HURRICANE WARNING SYSTEM AND RELATED MATTERS

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CMO WEATHER RADAR PROJECT

(Submitted by the BritishCaribbeanTerritories - BCT)

A.Introduction and Background

In October 2003, the European Commission approved 13.2 million Eurosfor the construction and installation of four new digital weather radars for the Caribbean Meteorological Organization (CMO). This Project replaces an old and obsolete radar network installed by the CMO in the late sixties and early seventies. Some of the old radar units operated by the CMO Member States lasted over 30 years, more than twice the expected lifetime of the radars.

The CMO began implementation this Radar Project in 2005. This document is to bring the Hurricane Committee up-to-date in the implementation process as the radars come on-line during the 2008 hurricane season, providing a major contribution to the Early Warning System in RA IV, as called for in the RA IV Hurricane Committee’s Operational and Technical Plans.

B.Summary of Technical Features of the Project

B1.Radar Type

  • Four powerful, high-precisionMETEOR 600 S-bandDoppler radars (manufactured by the Selex-Gematronik Company of Germany). The METEOR 600S is particularly suited to the extremely heavy rainfall and thunderstorm activity in the tropical maritime regions.
  • Maximum displayed range: 400 km.

RA IV/HC-XXX/Doc. 5(1), p. 1

B2.Location and Identifiers

Country / Location / Elevation (ASL) / Latitude / Longitude / Identifiers
Barbados / Castle Grant,St.Joseph / 342 m / 13o11’N / 59o33’W / TBPB
Belize / Belize City(Airport) / 18 m / 17o32’N / 88o18’W / MZBZ
Trinidad & Tobago / CentralMountains, Trinidad / 225 m / 10o25’N / 61o17’W / TTPP
Guyana(RA III) / CheddiJagonAirport / 50 m / 06o23’N / 58o15’W / SYCJ

C.Status of implementation and Scheduled Operational Dates

C1.The Radar Buildings

The radars will be housed in different ways in the four locations, as follows:

(i)Guyana and Trinidad - on reinforced concrete towers (See Figure 1);

(ii)Barbados - on a steel tower;

(iii)Belize – On the existing Met. Office building, renovated for the new radar.

C2.Operational Dates

Location / Expected Completion Date / Expected Operational Date
Barbados / June 2008 / July 2008
Belize / July 2008 / August 2008
Trinidad & Tobago / April 2008 / May 2008
Guyana(RA III) / November 2008 / December 2008

D.Data Availability (telecoms, internet)

Base data from the four new radars will be made available to the wider meteorological community and the public via the Internet. Specific data, including Doppler data, will be made available to the Meteorological Services in RA IV, RSMC-Miami and relevant services in RAIII via FTP servers. Addresses for the data will be distributed as systems come online during the 2008 hurricane season.

Importantly, the availability of the four new radars will allow for the creation of a regional radar network comprising these four radars, plus existing radars in Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Guadeloupe, Martinique, and French Guiana. The configuration of the network is shown in Figure2below. The composite is being created and will be operated by the French Meteorological Service - Météo-France, in close collaboration with the CMO. This network assumes the availability of one or more radars in the Dominican Republic. For the creation of the composite, 400 km data from each radar in the network will be sent to the Météo-France facility in Martinique via the ISCS/VSAT component of the WMORegional Meteorological Telecommunication Network (RMTN). The composite data will be rebroadcast from Martinique via the ISCS. This facility has been facilitated in collaboration with the US National Weather Service in Washington.

Figure 2 shows the theoretical radar coverage at 400km range

The gap shown in Figure 2 over Puerto Rico is artificial as that area is covered by aradar on that island but not as part of this network, while the real gap in the vicinity of the Cayman Islands will be discussed in Section F.

E.CMO Meteorological Training Programme

The CMO Radar Project includes a large training programme for Meteorological staff in its 16 Member States[1]. The training programme is necessary because of the time gap between the old and new radars, the inclusion of Doppler data and the major changes in radar technology over the years. An experienced international Training Expert with considerable Doppler radar experience in the tropics will provide training in collaboration with teaching staff at CMO’s Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH) in Barbados. The CIMH is one of the WMO RTCs in RAIV. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) assisted the CMO in identifying suitable international Training Experts. As part of its contract with the CMO, Météo-France has also provided special training in French for staff of the Haitian Meteorological Service.

F.Additional Radar forthe Caymans

The network created by the CMO Radar Project and other existing regional radars, shown in Figure 2, has one real gap in the vicinity of the Cayman Islands. The CMO has tabled proposals to the Government of the Cayman Islands for the installation of a Doppler radar to fill that gap. Ifthat proposal is agreed to, the network could be as shown in Figure 3 below by 2010.

Figure 3Proposed Radar for the Cayman Islands to provide complete Caribbean radar coverage

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[1]CMO Member States: Anguilla*, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands*, Cayman Islands*, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat*, St. Kitts/Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands*. [* = BCT]