**GCOS TECHNICAL SUPPORT CENTER REPORT**

**CARIBBEAN AND CENTRAL AMERICA**

**March thru June 2005**

**4^th^ Quarterly Report**

**INTERMET, INC. July 8^th^, 2005**

**Danny L. Foster**

**Sarasota, FL 34240**

**USA**

Danny L. Foster

Intermet, Inc

7732 Castleisland Drive

Sarasota, FL 34240

USA

Business Telephone/Fax + 041 379 3536

Home +941 378 1313

Cell 540 420 2255

<Infotiempo@comcast.net>

**4^th^ Quarterly Report**

**March, April, May 2005**

**(Plus June 2005)**

**In General**

The Contractor's activities for June 2005 are also included in this
4^th^ Quarterly Report.

During this period the Contractor's activities were primarily dedicated
to the GCOS surface observing network. Within the GSN, the Contractor
began work with the 9 sites in Mexico as well as investigating other
Mexican surface observatories for possible inclusion into the GCOS GSN.
The contractor performed missions to the following GSN sites:

San Andres Island, Colombia 80001

Nassau, Bahamas 78073

Acajutla, El Salvador 78650

Grand Cayman 78384

Mexico City, 76680

Manzanillo, Mexico 76654

Verzcruz, Mexico , 76692 (Possible GSN site)

Guanajuato, Mexico 76577

Most of the activities with the GUAN sites were aimed at solving
communications problems. The nagging problem with the Proton Generator
Power Supply units seems to have lessened during this period. Recently
NOAA and Proton Energy decided to create a standby supply of replacement
Master and Slave Power Supply units for rapid deployment to sites that
had failures and became inoperative. This worked very well for the
Belize GUAN site that failed April 29^th^ and was repaired by May 9^th^,
2005. Hopefully this rapid response by NOAA and Proton Energy will
continue. In addition, Proton has shipped surge suppressors to all the
Upper Air sites in the Caribbean including the 4 GCOS GUAN sites. Proton
Energy will also provide low voltage relays and enclosures to these
sites.

**GSN SITES (16)**

**In General**

The Contractor does not perform realtime monitoring of the exchange of
synoptic and metar reports from the 16 sites. This would be too
difficult and time consuming for the contractor. However, monthly
evaluations of site activities are performed and the sites are queried
if there are a significant number of missing observations. The
Contractor does carefully monitor the submission of the monthly CLIMAT
reports and works with the sites to provide missing reports to the GCOS
centers.

**GSN Sites in Central America and the Caribbean (7)**

**Synops and Metars Expected and Received at NCEP**

**March, April, May 2005**

![](media/image1.wmf){width="5.996527777777778in"
height="2.204861111111111in"}

11745 Metars were received at NCEP from the 7 sites which is 97% of
expected

3549 Synops were received at NCEP from the 7 sites which is 86% of
expected

All CLIMAT reports were submitted to the Centers during the period
although the NCEP web page does not reflect the submissions.

See <http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/gcos/>

The reliability of the submission of the CLIMAT messages to the centers
from the 7 sites increased by 29% during this period.

The Contractor worked with the staffs of 2 GSN sites to establish the
CLIMAT program and begin regular monthly reporting. NCEP had never
received CLIMAT reports from Grand Cayman or Acajutla, El Salvador.

The observing and recording practices of these sites are being conducted
in a very professional manner and are well within the requirements and
guidelines of the GCOS program.

Four GSN sites in the Caribbean are located on airport grounds and are
urged by airport authorities to move their offices and the instrument
fields. Barbados and Nassau are currently in the process of preparing to
move their instrument fields and need additional observing equipment and
instruments in order to do the GCOS required year long comparisons.

The Contractor is providing an additional set of Max/Min and
Psychrometric thermometers to several sites. The sites use a variety of
thermometers, but most are Lambrecht, Fuess or Cassela. The Contractor
has and will continue to provide new instruments that duplicate the
existing instruments.

**GSN Sites Mexico (9)**

During May 2005 the Contractor began work in Mexico and met with the
Permanent Representative to plan the next months activities in Mexico.
The Contractor plans to perform missions to all the existing GSN sites
and 3 locations that are potential GSN sites during the summer and fall
of 2005.

At this writing the contractor has performed missions to the GSN sites
of Manzanillo, Mexico City, Guanajuato and Veracruz. A senior
representative of SMN accompanied the Contractor on these missions.

Subsequent to the completion of the missions to all the sites the
Contractor will write a complete and detailed report on the state of the
GSN/GUAN sites with recommendations. However, it is apparent the
Contractor will require funding to support some changes required as well
as instrument replacement and backup.

**GUAN SITES (7)**

**In General**

The Contractor's primary focus during this period was on the GSN sites.
However the solution to the communications problem with Bogota, Colombia
and with San Cristobol (Galapagos Island) did require a lot of effort.

Bogota cannot overcome the unreliability of the MetLab/ WAFS
communications system. They have made repeated requests to NOAA to use
the NOAA EDIS system without any response from NOAA. The Brazilian NMHS
has offered to arrange an email system for Bogota to send their
observations to Brazilia where they will be put onto the GTS. This seems
to be working and will be closely monitored by the Contractor.

Although the GUAN site at Galapagos is not part of this contract, the
Contractor did work with the Ecuadorians and with Brazil to arrange to
get their observations onto the GTS via the Brazil email system. The
contractor is providing for an expert from Brazil to visit Quito to
arrange the email link.

The Contractor maintained close coordination with the management of
Proton Energy Systems Inc. concerning the operation of the hydrogen
generators. Proton is being very responsive to the CAC sites and they
are pursuing a solution on different fronts. The attached Memorandum to
the Contractor outlines their concerns and their plans to improve the
situation.

During the March thru June 2005 we experienced problems with Curacao and
with Bogota. The Curacao problems included the Proton Generator which
has since been remedied and their IMS1500C had a failure. The problem
with Bogota was their communications link which hopefully will be
overcome during July 2005.

Excluding Curacao and Bogota the remaining 5 sites reported 540 of 610
expected observations for 89%. reliability. During the same period in
2004 and for the same 5 sites the reception at NCEP was 414 out of 610
for 68% reliability.

![](media/image2.wmf)

GUAN Site Performance during March thru June 2005

During June 2005, the contractor arranged for an expert in CLIMAT TEMP
messages from Costa Rica Meteorological Service to visit Bogota,
Colombia and train 5 staff members on the compilation of upper air data
and creation of the CLIMAT TEMP message.

The Contractor is working with the Caribbean Institute of Meteorology
and Hydrology (CIMH) to consider a training session on compilation of
Upper Air Data and the creation of CLIMAT TEMP messages using the CLIREP
system.

**METADATA**

The Contractor is compiling METADATA for all the GUAN and GSN sites and
will provide these to the appropriate centers at the end of the
contract**.**

**HISTORICAL DATA**

The Contractor is working closely with all the sites to acquire their
historical records. This is a very large job as most of the data is on
paper and not digitized. The Contractor will prepare a proposal to GCOS
authorities concerning this effort.