November/December/2010

IEDRO Speaks at Asia–Pacific Network for Global Change Research Workshop

September 27 - 29 representatives from many of the Western Pacific region national meteorological offices met in Auckland, New Zealand. The workshop was hosted by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA). Attendees included visitors from Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu, Papua Kiribati, New Guinea, Niue, Tonga, as well as Marshall, Soloman, and Cook Islands. Other guests included speakers from NIWA, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, UCAR, Hadley Centre, regional graduate students, and the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Meeting participants described climate trends and meteorological data analysis within the region with an emphasis on both historical reconstruction and data rescue. Feedback from the regional stations was shared to guide development programs to align with their needs. IEDRO-related data rescue operations were highlighted to each representative from each national meteorological station.

Teddy Allen represented IEDRO at the workshop and presented a talk entitled, "IEDRO: past, present, and future." The purpose of the presentation was to inform the regional attendees of IEDRO's presence and operational work. Afterwards, Teddy met with each visiting meteorological station representative to discuss prospective opportunities for local data rescue programs. This workshop proved to be a valuable experience as it not only provided a successful networking opportunity, but also allowed IEDRO to illustrate the value of rescued data within the region. The audience was receptive and fruitful conversations ensued with both operational and research personnel.

Overall, IEDRO was able to ascertain valuable contacts from the Western Pacific and we gained a sense of their data supply and if they desired to digitize it.

Below is a list of the relevant speakers and their topics:

Rob Allan ( International ACRE Project Manager, Met Office at Hadley Centre, Exeter, UK ): ACRE representative from the UK. Rob aims to create a general "umbrella" for data rescue through ACRE to link international groups. He is involved with the Old Weather and CORRAL projects which use the "citizen science" approach as seen through Galaxy Zoo.

Rob has experience with data rescue and digitization operations in Indonesia. ACRE has operations in Indonesia, China, Philippines, French Indo-China, and within the South China Sea.

Gil Compo (UC CIRES Climate Diagnostics Center, NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory Physical Science Division): Gil's primary objective during the workshop was to highlight the 20th Century Reanalysis project that he spearheads and to show how much improvement could be achieved through integrating historical / digitized data in the data-void Western Pacific region. He relies strictly on surface pressure data and relayed the fact that most meteorological stations easily hand over barometric pressure data without any sort of temptation to sell unlike its more popular cousin, rainfall data.

Andrew (Drew) Lorrey (NIWA) presented the South Pacific Rainfall Atlas (SPRAT) and the Island Climate Update that provides monthly reviews / forecasts of the Western Pacific region. IEDRO's new Project Manager thought that it may be useful for IEDRO to become more familiar with the climate and its variability that this region.

Mac Benoy (Volunteer Project Manager, Australian Meteorological Association): Mac has extensive experience in managing volunteers in Adelaide on imaging meteorological data. His team has imaged more than 20,000 pages using community-based volunteers. His level of enthusiasm, expertise, and passion make him an ideal IEDRO companion in the Australian / West Pacific region. He has knowledge of digital imaging (camera lighting guru ) and imaging software applications. He expressed eagerness to collaborate with IEDRO. He suggested that IRFANVIEW (http://www.irfanview.com) would be the ideal open-source viewer that could be used for imaging. This could be useful as IEDRO manages the equipment dissemination.

Andrew Howard (Pacific Climate Change Science Program , National Climate Centre, Australian Bureau of Meteorology): Without a doubt, one of the most enthusiastic members of the workshop who is currently working on an almost complete open-source Climate Database Management System. His system is a great template for not only metadata and data management, but also for attaching information, photos, and files. His tutorial proved to be very convincing for IEDRO applications, especially if IEDRO develops its own digitizing team.