International Workshop on Rescue and
Digitization of Climate Records in the
Mediterranean Basin. Tarragona, Spain, 28-30
November 2007
Located on the Eastern Coast of the
Mediterra-nean Sea Basin.
Lat. 33:10 – 34:40 N
Log
35:15 – 36:10 E
Surface 10.452 Square Kilometers ( 2/5 of
land mountain, mean height 550 m, covered by
snow from 900 m, till 3086 m. Rain fall
amount: 800 mm on the coastal plain, 900 –
1650 mm on mountains, 225–650 mm on
interior plain, Bekaa)
Capital : Beirut.
Lebanese Meteorological Department
Edited by: Dr. Riad Assolh Al KHODARI
Chef de la Climatologie Générale
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In this brief approach, we will try to give you
an idea about the Meteorological Department
in Lebanon.
Measurement of some Meteorological
elements in Lebanon are old, as second half of
the 19th century, profound by Professors of
American University in Beirut, as well as
University of Saint Joseph (French University).
The 4th of July 1921, is be considered an Official Date
of Birth of the Meteorological Department in Lebanon, with
the need of Meteorological Forecast, and the
establishment of a special center for this purpose.
Later, 6 Synoptic Meteorological Stations, Radiosonde
Station, Wind Radar, were mounted. Consequently, 187
Meteorological Stations were distributed in the different
Lebanese regions.
Our progress with study although till 1975, with an
unhappy civil war, overwhelmed in Lebanon. It destroyed
most of stations and equipment, of NMS.
After the war, Meteorological Department asked for
help from METEO France, and WMO, in order to
reconstruct the National Network. Project was started
on August 1994, by the installation of 2 complete AWOS
(Milos 500-Fabricant Vaisala-Findland) for Beirut
International Airport, and for Tripoli_IPC station (Coastal
station at the North of Lebanon).
After, the Lebanese -French financial Protocol started
on summer 1997 included automatic weather stations,
as the following:
a) For Surface observations: 7 Complete Synoptic
Stations - 3 Agro meteorological Stations - 9
Climatolological Stations connected to METEO
Centre at Beirut Airport - 16 Climatological Stations
not connected (using PCMCIA card). 7
Climatological Stations prevue to install during few
months.
b) For Maritime Observations: 3 Buoys installed
along Lebanese Coast.
c) Upper Air observation: 1 Radiosonde Station at
Beirut.
d) Weather Radar, to detect Thunder Storms and
Probability of Rainfall.
2- Climatological Service in Lebanon, its tasks:
Measure and Prepare Statistical Means of different
weather parameters: Temperature, Relative Humidity,
Evaporation, Precipitations, Wind, Solar Radiation, Air
Quality and Environmental parameters ( CO, COз, CHч,
NOX, Oз ), Aerosols, and Sea Swell … Using NMS
network, dispersed all around Lebanon.
Climatological data coming from NMS network form an
essential data base, beneficiating to more studies, aimed
act providing answers to the anomaly weather extremes, in
order to decrease its negative impact on the life in this
region, and on the natural resources, especially : Water and
Power !
Beneficiaries from our NMS: Public - Government Business: Agriculture - Building and construction Insurance - Legal - Retail and manufacturing - Consulting
- Environment - Media -Telecommunications – Energy Water -Transport (Aviation, Marine, Road and rail ).
Lebanese weather stations report a mixture of hourly
observations of the weather (synoptic observations,
collected in real time), and daily summaries of the
weather (climate observations, from 16 climate stations
come in as collectives at the end of the month). All
Climate Stations record hourly and daily maximum and
minimum air temperature, relative humidity, rainfall
amount, Wind measurement, direction and speed,
Insolation time by minutes, Global Radiation amount.
3- History of Data saving and Management
Earliest record: By the first of February 1931, daily
data for Beirut Airport station. By the first of January
1947: hourly data for Rayak Military Airport station
(altitude 920 m), for El-Arz- Les-Cèdres station (altitude 1925 m), and Merdjayoun station (altitude 765m ).
• Stage 1: from 1931 till 1994, Manual
(Manual data statistic and reports). Observation,
Recording instruments, Monthly return reports.
Inspected (Visual inspection, Comparison with charts,
Statistics), controlled (Check up for all data validity
“element limits”, relation ships”, “rate of change,
nearby station”), processed, summaries publications,
Archived.
Till 1994, hard copies and files (on papers
and by microfilm) were used for saving and
keeping all our climate data in Lebanese
Climatolological Section.
* Stage 2: from 1994, Digital Data
- Minicomputer,
- Daily and Monthly statistics only for principal
synoptic stations.
- Monthly backup.
* Stage 3: from 1995 – till 2002, Clicom Programme
The beginning of digitize climate data occurred on
1995, by using a special computer to enter all data
imported from NMS Network, and saving them.
After, Computerize data statistic and reports started
with “Clicom” system.
Clicom based on MS DOS, with small PC Computer,
was installed, and started to enter all climate data
registered on papers and files.
But, by the end of February 2002, Clicom Programme was stopped, because of many difficulties such
as:
* Problems coming from non homogenization on
working between Clicom equipment and
Observations Automatic Stations Network.
* Working under Dos Operating System, couldn’t
process long climate data base series, especially minute and hourly data. And it was hard
to extract reports.
* Problems on working in Network.
* Arabic language is not supported.
* Exported data was not standard to be
transferred to another system.
* Problems with maintenance, backup, restore
and merged data….
* Stage 4, from February 2002:
Preparing and developing a locally made
Programme (in our NMS, named: Done).
Recently, this Programme has been
designed as a replacement for the Clicom
Programme, only for the moment in order to
save and exploit climate data, registered in
NMS Network. Until we succeed in obtaining
the CliSys, with the funding of WMO.
By the locally made Programme, Done, we
can perform a wide variety of tasks:
a) Data Entry from old papers and files.
b) Data Entry from current Observations.
c) Importing data from different format.
d) Validation and Quality control - semi
automatically.
e) Archiving & Analyzing climate data, Digitizing
Precipitation amount.
f) Rescue climate data:
1- Hourly Backup (All Database),
2- Daily Backup (increment data),
3- Monthly Backup (All Database),
4 - Annual Backup (All Database & Application),
•
Update Station Data after the full network and
quality control has been carried out. This usually
takes around one to three months.
*
System Reports Facilities: Generate different
kinds of reports, directly in printable form or
Excel worksheets. It can retrieve and calculate
any data from the database without changing in
the original database.
*
Locally made Programme, Done, can store and
Rescue all Climatological Data: Daily data,
Hourly data, Monthly data, Upper air data,
maritime data (from buoys), and environmental
data (Station studying air quality).
Climate averages - Long-term averages
World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
requires the calculation of averages for
consecutive periods of 30 years, with the
latest covering the 1961-1990 period.
However, Lebanese Climatological Service
updates their averages at the completion of
each decade. These averages help us to
describe our climate, used as a base to which
current conditions can be compared, and used
in our studies on climate change impact in
Lebanon and the East Mediterranean Region.
Other helpful answers:
Definitively, all principal parameters (such as
temperature, Relative Humidity, Rainfall
amount, wind direction and speed,
atmospheric pressure, sun shine and global
radiation amount), are digitized, not for all
stations, but only for principal stations,
preferable and demanded by users, and for
our study needs.
Length of records:
In parallel to the automatic weather stations data
registered automatically (records were started by
the year 1994, for Beirut Airport and Tripoli_IPC
stations, and by the year 1997, for all stations
installed by the Lebanese – French Protocol):
We digitized the important parameters (such as
temperature and rainfall), for the principal manual
stations: two coastal stations, from the year 1932,
one station on high mountain, from the year 1947,
and one station at the interior region, from the year
1943). Resolution of the records are: Hourly, daily,
and monthly, in most stations, plus records of 5min,
10min and 30 minutes for Rainfall amount, and
records of 30 minutes for maritime data.
Problem of time series gaps:
The big problem comes by the civil war in Lebanon,
(1975 and 1990), which destroyed the majority of
Climatological stations. And the obligatory change of
stations sites for many reasons. A lot of data
registered on papers and files were disappearing,
from our NMS offices, our national archive.
We placed a Program, to fined lost Climate Data
kept outside National Météo Offices: American
University in Beirut, University saint Joseph,
National Statistics Bureau, and other archives, in
which Climate Data are preserved (on paper form,
publications or microfilm), in order to create
completeness and continuity of Climate Data, to be
available for end users, in the period of six to nine
months.
By the end of this brief approach, we bring to
your kind attention our Needs from this
Workshop: how to benefit of the MED-DARE
programs, applications, practical studies of
meteorological scientists, experiences of
developed Meteo Services, like those in France,
Spain and Germany, to resolve the difficulties
and problems for : fostering DARE initiatives at
the national scale, developing national long-term
climate records, transferring data from paper
form to microfiches / microfilms, digitalization
issues. Which facilitate the extraction of mid
range and long range prediction, concerning the
Climate Variability and change.
Thank you for your kind attention
________________________
Dr. Riad Assolh Al KHODARI
METEO - LEBANON
Tel: 00961 3 930 765
00961 1 362 367
Fax: 00961 1 628 187
E.Mail: dr.khodari@hotmail.com