**[MWINILUNGA -- KASAMA AND LIVINGSTONE]{.underline}**

**[ZAMBIA 10^TH^ -- 20^TH^ SEPTEMBER 2006]{.underline}**

**Background**

> The main objectives of this trip was to carryout inspection of
> Meteorological Instruments, measure and record Meta data, test and
> calibrate thermometers and barometers at these stations. The
> inspection trip started on 10^th^ and ended on 20^th^ September 2006.
> The trip covered three GSN stations namely;- Kasama, Livingstone and
> Mwinilunga. Our companions during this trip were the Chief
> Meteorologist, Mr Jacob Nkomoki and the Driver Mr Boyd Ngoma.

2.  **Kasama-**

    1.  **Location and Establishment.**

> Kasama was established as far back as 1958 and lies on Latitude 10º 13
> South and Longitude 13º 08 east and its height is 1392 meters above
> Mean Sea Level.
>
> The station is situated on the eastern side of the airport. The
> Meteorological Enclosure measures 20.7m X 14m. The instruments at this
> meteorological enclosure are well exposed. We have, however, observed
> that most of the instruments at this station are obsolete and
> unserviceable.

# 3.0 Instruments and met enclosure

3.1 **Stevenson Screen**

> The Steven Screen is very old it cannot be repaired or repainted.

1.  **Wind System**

> The wind system obtained from China is old and is not working. The
> source of wind information is obtained by observing a wind sock and
> applying the Beaufort Wind Scale to determine wind speed. We believe
> this is not a good way of making observations in this new era.

2.  **Thermometers**

The available thermometers were carefully inspected and it was noted
that the maximum thermometer could no longer be used as its bulb had a
crack hence the mercury could not easily flow through its constriction.
All other thermometers compared favorably with GTH 175/Pt calibration
thermometer. The maximum thermometer needs to be replaced.

Two soil thermometers are available i.e. - 10 cm and 30 cm. It was also
not easy to identify their serial numbers. Thermometers for other depths
were not available.

3.4 **Barograph and Thermo hygrograph**

The available Barograph and Thermo hygrograph are very old and are not
working.

3.5 Evaporation Pan

> The evaporation pan is old and rusty and it is not in use due to
> serious shortage of water in Kasama area

3.6 **Sunshine Recorder**

The sunshine recorder is serviceable

3.7 **Barometer**

The Digital Barometer (PTB220 from Vaisala) is serviceable and compared
favorably with the traveling standard.

3.8 **Rain gauges**

Automatic rain gauge is very old and unserviceable. The 5" copper rain
gauge is new and has recently been installed.

3.9 **Communication:-**

HF radio communication is used for the collection and disseminates
weather observations to the main center in Lusaka. There is however a
land line telephone which is used for administrative matters. It is used
as a back up whenever the radio is out of service.

4.0 **Mwinilunga**

4.1 **Establishment of station**

Mwinilunga was established in 1958. It has an altitude of 1369metres
above mean sea level. It is situated on Latitude 11º 44 South and
Longitude 24º 26 east.

4.0 **Instruments and Met Enclosure**

The Meteorological Enclosure measures 12.07 m x 7.6m. The grass in the
Met enclosure is cut short and the instruments are adequately exposed.
The following is a description of the status of Instruments.

4\...1 **Rain -gauges:**

A new 5 inch copper rain-gauge was installed in July 2006. The automatic
rain-gauge is very old and is no longer used.

4.2 **Thermometers Screen:**

A small Marine type screen was installed in February 2006. The standard
Stevenson screen is very old and it cannot be repaired nor repainted.

4.3 **Thermometers:**

Thermometers are new and have been installed in the new Marine type
screen. Soil thermometers are listed in the record form for this
station. The 5cm and 100cm earth thermometers are not available.

4.4 **Barometer**

The station uses a Digital Barometer PTB220 which compared favorably
with the traveling standard.

The Kew Pattern Barometer is also available but this Barometer is very
old and it cannot be used as it has its adjusting knob and sight tube
broken.

4.5 **Barograph**

There is a new barograph but this instrument cannot be used as its
specifications do not fall within the station height level. A suitable
Barograph has to be procured as a replacement.

4.6 **Sunshine Recorder**

The sunshine recorder is available and it is currently not mounted as
the mounting screws are not available. It is to be mounted on a steel
base on top of a small ant hill situated some 70 metres away on the
eastern side of Meteorological enclosure.

4.7 **Evaporimeter**

A new class evaporation pan made from aluminum has been procured; this
pan is a replacement of the old one. At the time of our inspection the
pan had not yet been installed. The hook gauge is available and it will
be installed as necessary.

4.8 **Thermo-hygrograph**

A new thermo-hygrograph is available it uses a quartz variable clock
however, when the clock is set to run for a day it lags behind by about
two hours. This lagging behind of the clock has now rendered
unserviceable. It was noted from the maintenance manual that this type
of clock cannot be serviced or repaired and can only be replaced with a
new one hence it is suggested that a new one should be bought. Details
of this thermo-hygrograph are listed on the inspection form which is
attached as appendix to this report.

4.9 **Cup Counter Anemometer**

The Cup Counter Anemometer is currently being used to compute wind speed
and a wind vane is used to indicate wind direction. This is a bit
cumbersome for the observer. It is strongly recommended that a
conventional wind system be purchased for this station.

4.10 **Communication**

An HF Radio telephone is used to transmit weather observations to the
main center in Lusaka. The station has neither phone nor computer and as
a result computation of climate reports are done manually. A suitable
communication system is needed at this station. Replacement of all other
instrument may not meet the objective of this project without the
provision of a suitable communication system to inject the observation
into the GTS.

5.0 **Livingstone**

5.1 **Location**

This station is situated at Livingstone Airport on the eastern side of
the terminal building. A temporary Met enclosure had been established as
a result of construction work going on for the extension of the run way
and apron. Meta data measurements were taken at the temporary met
enclosure and half way along the runway. The readings at the two sites
as read from the GPS indicated that the Latitude of the station is 17
º49 Longitude is 25º 49 and the altitude is 991 meters above mean sea
level.

6.0 **Meteorological Instruments**

A few conventional instruments are temporary located at the temporary
met enclosure site. These instruments are the 5" copper rain gauge, an
old fiber glass an evaporation pan with a hook gauge and earth
thermometers.

6.1 **Manual Rain gauge**

The rain gauge is new and was installed in June 2006.

6.2 **Automatic Rain gauge**

This is the typing bucket type. It is one of the components of the
Automatic Weather Station installed half way along the run way. However
this Automatic Weather Station belongs to the National Airports of
Zambia.

6.3 **The Thermometer Screen**

The Stevenson Screen. It is worn out, a new screen is required. As
indicated above it is installed at the temporary site.

6.4 **Thermometers**

All thermometers are available. The Dry, Wet, Maximum and Minimum
thermometers compared well with the GTH 175/Pt thermometer when the
calibration tests were done. See details on the attached form.

6.5 **Remote Indicating Instruments**

An automatic Weather Station comprising of a wind system, pressure,
Relative Humidity, Temperature and Radiation sensors has been installed
midway along the runway. The AWS is manufactured by ALMOS in the
Netherlands.

6.6 **Barometers**

Two Barometers are available. These Barometers are the Aneroid Barometer
type M2236/0 manufactured by Mechanism Ltd and the Digital Barometer
PPTB manufactured by Vaisala -- Finland. The two Barometers were
compared with the traveling standard and were found to be within the
acceptable correction factor. Correction cards are available at the
station.

6.7 **Barograph**

This instrument is not available

8.  **Sunshine Recoder**

The sunshine recorder is available but has not been installed the main
reason being that the charts are not available.

6.9 **Evaporimeter**

This is a class a pan made from fiber glass; it is installed at the
temporary site and was not level.

6.10 **Thermograph**

Not available

6.11 **Cloud Search light**

The Cloud Search light has been recently installed. This is a product of
ALMOS-- in the Netherlands.

6.12 **Cup Counter Anemometer**

The cup counter anemometer is available. This is type W1200/2
manufactured by Casella. The instrument is not installed at the
temporary site.

It will be installed at the Permanent site once construction work on the
extension of the runway and apron is completed.

6.13 **Weather Observer Terminal System**

The system uses Windows 2000 platform and a custom written software
visual base is used as the application software. The is a product of
ALMOS. Model "ALMOS Met 12/24 modem S/N 2061" Rom version 2.04. The
system was installed on 5^th^ April 2005.

7.  **Performance of the GSN Stations.**

Our daily monitoring of the synops and metars indicates that all the GSN
stations in Zambia are silent. This is mainly due to obsolete
instruments and none availability of suitable communications systems at
most of these stations. A Performance Chart is attached as an appendix
to this report to illustrate this.

8.  **Conclusion**

The GSN Stations we visited in Zambia needs to be attended to promptly.
Although we found that some instruments could be used their state is
totally below the expected international standard and worse still below
the WMO Recommended Standards .The available instruments are obsolete
and most of them are not being used. HF communication is used and has
proved to be unreliable, especially during rainfall season when static
conditions are high. Maintenance Personnel are not adequately trained as
a result it takes them too long to restore instruments and communication
equipment to normal operation calibration of instruments is not
frequently done.

9.0 **Recommendations**

The inspection of three GSN Stations at Kasama, Mwinilunga and
Livingstone revealed that most of the instruments installed at these
stations are old and obsolete. Kasama being the worst as almost all
instruments are unserviceable. In this regard, it is strongly
recommended that the instruments listed below are recommended for
replacement with immediate effect.

There is a need to improve communication for the transmission of
observations to the main center in Lusaka so that it could be injected
into the GTS with ease. Telephone facilities are available at these
places. What is required is to procure PC's with suitable software and
link them through dial up circuits using modems (Wide Area Network).
This is one of the cheapest means of communication that can be explored.

It is strongly recommended that consideration be made for the provision
of an up to date means of communication preferably a system using
satellite telemeter. It was also noted that calibration of instruments
is rarely done. In this regard it is strongly recommended that basic
calibration instruments like the electrical thermometer similar to one
we used could be made available to the National Met of Zambia and many
others like the digital barometer and others which are available in the
market these instruments could easily be sent to the CSIR for
calibration at reasonable cheap prices. In this way the quality of data
could be improved.

**9.1 Instruments Recommended for Replacement.**

\(i\) 3 x Stevenson Screens

\(ii\) 2 x Wind Systems

(iii) 3 x Barographs

\(iv\) 3 x Thermo-hygrographs

\(v\) 1 x Max Thermometer

(vi) 2 x Evaporation Pans

(vii) 3 x Automatic rain gauge

(viii) Calibration instruments.