WMO congratulates the three scientists leading the research teams that will share the US$ 5 million grant from the United Arab Emirates Research Programme for Rain Enhancement Science.
Masataka Murakami, Visiting Professor from the Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research, Nagoya University (Japan), for his work on pre- cipitation enhancement in arid and semi-arid regions. Professor Murakami’s project focuses on innovative algorithms and sensors dedicated to identifying the clouds
Article published in Volume 51, No. 2, April 2002
For the first few months of its existence, the World Meteorological Organization utilized as its Headquarters the offices of its predecessor, the International Meteorological Organization, which were in Lausanne, Switzerland. On 10 December 1951, the Secretariat was moved to its temporary Headquarters at Campagne Rigot, Avenue de la Paix, Geneva, Switzerland. This...
There are no obituaries in the April 2008 Bulletin.
Climate change and its impacts are affecting all members of society – women, men, girls and boys – but not always in the same way. In the widely-dispersed Pacific islands with their varying geographical conditions, cultures and socials structures, these differences are magnified. Pauline Pogi a hydrologist in the Water Resource Division of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment in Samoa stated, “Women, especially women who care for children or the elderly, are among the groups that are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
Meteorological observations clearly demonstrate that global climate change has occurred since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. That change has been particularly pronounced since about 1950, and includes changes in weather and extreme climate events. Changes in weather and climate extremes can significantly increase the impacts on society, leading to a greater number of disaster worldwide. One of the world's most disaster-prone regions is the Asia-Pacific.
The Earth’s atmosphere's main cleansing mechanism removes chemicals from the air and deposits them onto land and water surfaces. While the effects of these removal processes are mostly beneficial, some can have negative impacts on human health, ecosystems and food security. For example, acid rain – the acidification of rainwater due to nitrogen and sulfur emissions – damages forests, kills insects, corrodes industrial metal structures, etc. Such adverse impacts of deposition are of great interest to society as a whole and more particularly to policymakers, thus, WMO decided to undertake the Measurement-Model Fusion for Global Total Atmospheric Deposition Initiative.
Glacier shrinkage – accelerated over the last decades due to climate change – is exposing large areas in mountain regions worldwide. But an even dire consequence of the melting ice is the forming of more glacier lakes, which are increasing in size. Glacial lakes have caused some of the world’s most devastating floods, for example, in the Andes, Himalayas and Alps, where thousands of human lives were lost and huge infrastructure damages reported (Carrivick and Tweed, 2013; Bajracharya et al., 2007; Carey 2005).
 |
| Figure 1. Glaciers distribution over theThird Pole and its surrounding areas. |
Mountains...
The WMO High Mountain Summit on 29-31 October 2019 concluded with a Call to Action and a roadmap of priority activities. The priority actions aim to support more sustainable development, disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation both in high-mountain areas and downstream.
Flash floods are among the world’s deadliest natural hazards. They cause more than 5 000 deaths annually and have severe social, economic and environmental impacts. Flash floods account for approximately 85% of all floods and have the highest mortality rate among all categories of flooding.
