Widening the Scope of the VLab

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Widening the Scope of the VLab
At CGMS-37 the Vlab got the following actions
Action No. Action Responsible Due Date
37.12 VLab Co-chairs to discuss with VLab sponsoring agencies the funding of the Technical Support Officer (TSO) position from 2010 onwards. Status INPE paid the TSOs salary from November 2009 to January 2010 NOAA / CIRA committed funding of the TSO for 2010 Volker, Luiz CGMS-38
37.14 WMO to continue dialogue with ISRO regarding the establishment of a CoE and the co-sponsoring of the CoE in Oman. Status January 10 CoE in Oman sent a letter to IMD on 26 Dec 2009 WMO, Space Program CGMS-38
37.15 VLab Co-chairs and WMO to seek an agreement between CGMS, COMET and WMO with a view of using ESRC as a resource library for the VLab. Status VLMG members have been invited to register and test the functionalities of the ESRC until June 2010 (ref. Action VLMG5.03) Volker, Luiz, Jerome CGMS-38
37.16 The Co-chairs, in consultation with the WMO Space Programme and other relevant WMO Departments, to prepare a roadmap towards widening the scope of VLab activities to serve the needs of emerging scientific communities in the developing countries. This roadmap will be reviewed by VLMG and presented to CGMS-38 for approval. Status Communication process started with the WMO Research Department (L. Barrie) Volker, Luiz, Jerome CGMS-38
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Widening the Scope of the VLab
 
At VLMG-3 the Group stated In considering the
future growth and direction of the VLab the
Co-Chair suggested that the group should take
account of the nine GEO Societal Benefit Areas
(SBAs) in their future plans. It was felt
already at that time that the Vlab can contribute
to almost all of the SBAs, which are
Agriculture Biodiversity (??) Climate
Disasters Ecosystems Energy Health
Water Weather
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Widening the Scope of the VLab
 
The Vlab Strategy states

• Building upon the currently available expertise
  within the VL network, training activities should
  first focus upon the following topics
• Satellite Remote Sensing
• (ii) Meteorology
• (iii) Climate
• (iv) Hydrometeorological and other natural
  disasters
• Where satellite observations are of benefit, and
  there is a user requirement, then the focus of
  Vlab activities could be widened to support
  training related to
• (v) Ocean applications
• (vi) Land applications
• (vii) Hydrology and water management
• (viii) Atmospheric chemistry, air quality
• (ix) Environmental quality
• Applications and Service based training will
  increasingly involve the use of satellite data in
  combination with other data sets such as weather
  radar, NWP, lightning, precipitation, land
  information, etc., and may well be carried out in
  partnership with other Institutes where the
  relevant expertise exists.

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Widening the Scope of the VLab
 
During last year some of the Vlab partners have
started to develop a training course for Marine
Forecasters. This was initiated by Stan Wilson
(NOAA) and supported by EUMETSAT. A first
training event took place in Oostende (Belgium)
in December 2009 at the premises of the
"International Oceanographic Data and
Information Exchange" (IODE) of the
"Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission"
(IOC) of UNESCO. Following this event another
one is in the planning stage for March 2011. This
time NOAA, EUMETSAT and CPTEC/INPE are the
partners. Again IODE will participate, either in
the event in Brazil or as a backup host. This
activity shows that partners of the Vlab frame
network have joined to embark on training another
related community. This can serve as a model to
open the Vlab for additional training activities
using the same approach and methodology as for
the core training.
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Widening the Scope of the VLab
 
During last year some discussions have taken
place between EUMETSAT and the Spanish Met.
Service AEMET to investigate how EUMETSAT can
help in the training activities for the WMO dust
Monitoring project SDS-WAS (www.wmo.int/sdswas)
where they are the host for the "NODE for
Northern Africa, Middle East and Europe" The
Asian node for SDS-WAS is hosted by CMA in
Beijing. JMA is also a contributor. In the
meantime the Met. Service of Oman has expressed
an interest to support the SDS-WAS project as a
training entity as well. Oman being already a
Centre of Excellence in the Vlab can play a
strong support role for SDS-WAS. The
co-operation in support of SDS-WAS is also
offering a good opportunity to get the research
community close to the Vlab training approach. On
the WMO side three directorates are involved with
this (Space Program, Research and development and
Training).
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Widening the Scope of the VLab
 
In 2009 a joint training activity on Land Surface
Applications had been jointly held between
CPTEC/INPT and EUMETSAT in Brazil with
involvement of experts from the EUMETSAT Land
Surface Application Facility (SAF). The same
course was re-delivered later in the same year
(November 2009) in Mozambique for Portuguese
Speaking Countries in Africa. It is considered
to translate the material into French and
re-deliver the course again in West Africa
(Niamey ??) in 2011. Including a special chapter
on dust training.