DCPC Gulf marine centre as the regional hub CBS TECO 2016, Guangzhou, China, 21-22 Nov, 2016 DCPC Gulf marine centre as the regional hub Omar Obaidan, Sunghoi HUH*, Mohammad AlKubaisi, Haya AlNaimi, Abdulla AlMannai Qatar Meteorology Department Qatar Civil Aviation Authority

Agenda Items Motivation Weather Challenges in Arabian Gulf WMO Information System in Arabian Gulf Gulf Marine Centre as the Regional Hub

Motivation GCC(Gulf Cooperation Council) members are sharing Arabian Gulf The seasonal movement of the low pressure system over the Arabian Gulf mainly causes the weather phenomena in this area effecting each other Summer season, the system is moving from East to West due to the strong Monsoon, and recognizing weather parameters on Southern East countries will be essential to the countries in Northern West area relatively where the winter season will be the opposite

Major Weather Risks in Arabian Gulf … Severe Wind & Dust storm Severe Fog & Mist causing poor visibility Strong Heat Wave Sea Current Variation

Weather Challenges : Marine Weather Safety & Storm Surge in Arabian Gulf

Weather Challenges : Heat Wave in Arabian Gulf Sea

Weather Challenges : Dust Storm covering Arabian Gulf

Weather Challenges : Dust Storm covering Arabian Gulf

There have been some regional Cooperation on meteorology.. Annual Council of GCC Standing Committee Official meeting with PRs of Meteorological Departments Radar Image composition between GCC member countries UAE has been gathering and displaying composited image(http) Gathering regional SYNOP data(METAR), but only on the map in Webpage(http)

Regional Cooperation on WIS/WIGOS via DCPC GMC The development of joint activities widening the regional weather watch will definitely provide the multilateral benefits between countries Cooperation will be required for early warning purpose to reduce the regional disaster contributing to four of the eight WMO strategic priority areas such as Improved service quality & service delivery, Reduced disaster risk, Improved observation & data exchange, Strengthened partnership (Expected results 1, 2, 4, and 7, WMO Strategic Plan 2016-2019, WMO-No. 1161, 2015).

WIS Centres in Arabian Gulf (RAII) Arabian Gulf Region 2 GISCs(Saudi - Jeddah, Iran -Tehran) 4 DCPCs Qatar(GMC), Saudi Arabia(RTH, RSMC), Iran(RTH) 9 NCs Qatar(2), Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, UAE, Oman, Yemen, Iran Only 1 Meteorological Marine Centre in Qatar DCPC GMC(Gulf Marine Centre)

Work History : DCPC GMC Initiating to establish DCPC GMC : 2010 International WIS Workshop in Doha : 2013 Setting up & Deploying pre-operational system : April, 2014 WMO auditing & endorsed (by CBS) : Sept, 2014 Expecting to be operational by Feb. 2017

Gulf Marine Centre(GMC) : Information Service Aiming to provide Meteorological Marine Service in Gulf Region (Feb 2017) Gulf maritime data & information via http, FTP, … Contributing on GMDSS(Global Maritime Distress Safety System) MoU between Qatar and Pakistan for METAREA-IX (Oct, 2015)

Goal to Operation : DCPC GMC (July 2016) Marine service and regional hub in gulf region based on the WIS compliance WMO / JCOMM & GMDSS

Data in WIS : DCPC GMC NWP(Numerical Weather Prediction) Products Gulf regional Atmospheric, Marine and Climate models products EWS(Early Warning System) data AWS, Buoy, Road Information System Real time Meteorological and Seismic data from all over Qatar GMDSS(Global Maritime Distress and Safety System) via NAVTEX and INMARSAT Providing oceanic safety and ensuring fast & automatic alerting of rescue authorities ashore as well as ships nearby, in case of a marine distress situation METAREA IX (cooperation with Pakistan)

Our Stakeholders / User Group Oil & Gas, Refinery Company RAS GAS, Qatar Gas, Qatar Patroleum Port authority, Fishery authority Culture & Tour authority Defense authority (Civil Defense, Qatar’s Search and Rescue teams)

Way to Support Marine Works Providing site specific forecasting 10 days forecasting (Sea Current / Sea Wave,…) Real time observation / Forecaster deployment Quality control & assurance for observation data Consulting for Project planning & Construction: Detailed site investigation & survey Operation: Operational schedule & maintenance planning

Benefits Expected Countries will get to access more regional data & products increasing weather visibility while reducing the financial demands. Exchanging weather experiences & forecasting skills on extreme weather in Arabian Gulf will get to lead the enhanced weather forecasting activities. Joint efforts with the training workshop will cause the synergy for initiating regional WIS/WIGOS cooperation, and regional WIS platform will improve the early warning activities with the reaching to the increased weather parameters for GCC countries.

Benefits from DCPC GMC DCPC for Meteorological Gulf Marine & Food Security Information service Easily find out the regional information based on improved accessibility to the various range of data & products Discovery, Access, and Retrieval Internet access to the Web site Improved accessibility to get various file types Dissemination via Email, FTP, HTTP, FAX, … Dissemination with text, XML, pdf files, …

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