01st October 2019 The Technical staff of the Tonga Meteorological and Coast Radio Services has completed a week’s (23rd – 27th, September 2019) Automatic Weather Station Maintenance Training and Competency Tests. This collaboration was between TMS and experts from NIWA is under the Climate Resilience Sector Project (CRSP) framework to strengthen climate and weather services for the people of Tonga.
It is important for our services that our technical support is trained up to a very high standard and to maintain their competency levels because in order to retrieve high quality and accurate meteorological observations from our newly installed Automatic Weather Stations (AWS), they always need to be maintained and looked after at regular times. These AWSs are the backbone of our daily weather forecast for Tonga because these AWS data are then used to produce our routine forecasts.
The AWS maintenance training of the TMS technical staff being completed here, also includes our meteorological technicians from Vava’u represented by Mr. ‘Atonio Kavai, from Ha’apai was Ms. ‘Amelia Pahulu and from ‘Eua was Mr. Siale Tahaafe. The rest of the technician team here in Tongatapu included Mr. Selusalema Vite and Mr.’Enisi Maea.
The AWS Network maintenance and calibration here in Tongatapu is now complete. The team of experts will mobilze to Vava’u, Ha’apai and ‘Eua today to carry out similar maintenance and competency tests. On-going collaborations with the team from NIWA will be maintained in the in the future as well as regular online system checks.
In addition to the AWS maintenance training, the NIWA team also show cased one of the newest products being developed for TMS, this was the Wave and Tide Forecasting tool. Through the Tonga Climate Resilience Sector Project (CRSP), NIWA was commissioned to work with the Tonga Meteorological Services (TMS) to extend and develop local capabilities in meteorological and coastal monitoring systems within the Tongan archipelago. This included the development of tide and wave forecasting products/tools for use in TMS marine weather forecasting operations.
To this end, 21 automatic weather stations (AWS) were deployed at strategic locations across the Tongan archipelago, as well as 2 permanent seawater level (PSL) recorders installed at Neiafu Wharf, Vava’u, and at Felahau Wharf, Niuatoputapu. All stations are telemetered and are reporting in near real-time and are being ingested into the CliDE database with the CliDEsc product generation system installed at TMS headquarters.
In addition, 8 temporary wave recorders, 14 temporary water level recorders and 3 temporary acoustic doppler current profilers (ADCPs) were deployed at strategic locations from October 2018 – May 2019, enabling approximately 7 months of data to be collected.
Data collected from the temporary (and permanent) wave and water level recorders underpinned analysis and development of improved (higher grid resolution) tide and wave forecast products for key domestic shipping routes and landing sites, and at
different geospatial scales (e.g. exclusive economic zone or archipelago scale, local island/group scale at specific landing sites).
The products were developed, integrated and displayed through the Tonga CliDEsc centralized portal developed in this project for local use and assimilation by TMS into routine tide-wave forecasting operations. The improved marine weather forecast information is targeted to support Tongan maritime sector activities and to work is being continued on to provide impact based marine products for all maritime stakeholders of TMS.
In addition to the annual calendars for the sites above, a 6-day predicted tide tool has been established showing daily tide values for key landing sites. This enables operational ease for TMS duty forecasters in monitoring/obtaining tide information for inclusion into marine weather bulletins (MWB) and associated marine high tide advisories. ‘Spring’ high and low tides, as well as ‘King’ high and low tides will be automatically appear in the 6-day forecast outlook.
A national scale wave forecast 1 km grid-model was developed for the Tongan archipelago and provides wave forecasts for the key island groups of Tongatapu, Eua, Ha’apai, Vava’u and the Niuas. Key parameters included in the forecast are: Forecasts of significant wave height, wave period, and direction up to 18 hours in advance (displayed in 12-hour intervals); Forecasts of significant wave height, wave period, and direction up to 6 days in advance (displayed in 24-hour/daily intervals).
This new product from TMS will further improve the forecasting capabilities and accuracy of our forecast and will add value impact forecasting warning and services to all our maritime stakeholders. This product would is in it’s final stage of development and will be handed over for full operational use by November this year.
ENDS
Issued by the Department of Meteorology (MEIDECC)