**GCOS TECHNICAL SUPPORT CENTER REPORT**

**CARIBBEAN AND CENTRAL AMERICA**

**July through December 2005**

**5^th^ Report**

**INTERMET, INC. December 31, 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>

**5^th^ Report**

**July thru December, 2005**

**In General**

During this period the Contractor's activities were primarily dedicated
to the GCOS surface observing network in Mexico. The contractor
performed missions to the following observatories in Mexico and other
observatories in the CAC region:

Mexico City, 76680

Veracruz, Mexico , 76692 (Possible GSN site)

Guanajuato, Mexico 76577

Tampico, Mexico 76548 (Possible GSN Site)

Chihuahua 76225 (Possible GSN Site)

Monterrey 76393

Mazatlan 76458

LaPaz 76405

Salina Cruz 76833

Barbados 78954

Quito, Ecuador (Galapagos)

Acajutla, El Salvador 78650

**7 GUAN SITES plus Galapagos**

The performance is based on the NOAA Daily Thanks2 and NOAA Upper Air
Inventory Monthly Reports

**In General:**

The Proton hydrogen generator continued to be a problem at the four
observatories in the CAC region as well as the Galapagos 84008 GUAN site
in RAIII. NOAA has the contract with Proton Industries for these
generators and controls warranties and maintenance responsibilities. It
is obvious this arrangement is not sufficient to maintain operational
upper air observatories such as these. The most effective support the
Contractor can provide for this problem is to provide some spare and/or
replacement parts and expendable water filters. Also promoting the
exchange of information among the staffs of the GUAN sites is very
effective.

The radiosonde ground equipment at the NOAA supported sites is the
Intermet Systems IMS1500c which has been relatively free of problems and
have performed reliably. Occasional problems show up with the systems
and it takes quite a while to resolve the problems. This is because of
the remote location of the manfacturer support facility and NOAA's
reduced staff to support the sites by monitoring the performance of the
contractor and the observatory. The other 3 GUAN sites in the CAC and at
Galapagos use the Vaisala system which performed very well without any
need for the contractor to intervene.

NOAA provides expendables for Barbados, Kingston, Curacao and Belize and
are reasonably reliable in this activity. Mexico is independent in
providing expendables to their 17 observatories including the GUAN site
in Manzanillo. Mexico is planning to convert the Manzanillo site to
using the RS-92 sonde sometime during this year. The GUAN sites that
need external support in this region are San Jose, Costa Rica and
Bogota, Colombia. The Contractor did provide expendables (balloons) to
San Jose, Costa Rica 78762 during the past few months.

**The reliability of the receipt of observations at NOAA can be traced
directly to the active interest and participation shown by the
organizations interested in receiving the observations. If an
organization wants to approach 100% reception of daily observations then
that organization must carefully monitor the receipt and speak with the
observatories at least weekly and show interest in their problems. Each
site should be visited by the interested organization at least once per
year or more as dictated by the performance of the particular
observatory. Providing equipment, spares, and expendables is very
important but that is not enough. The observatories must know their work
is being carefully monitored and appreciated.**

![](media/image1.wmf)

**Galapagos 84008.** The performance of the observatory at Galapagos,
San Cristobol Island has improved as a result of the efforts of the
Contractor. However the performance is still below acceptable standards
in terms of reliability and content of the observations reported. NOAA
reports indicate the Observatory 84008 did not report during 2003, 2004
and prior to June 2005. During June 2005 the contractor became involved
and the station began sending their observations to NOAA (see above).

![](media/image2.wmf)

According to the NOAA Thanks2 Report, the observations are only reaching
the 100 millibar level and the timing of the observation is in question.
The Contractor expects to have a mission to Galapagos during January
2006 to carefully review the operation of the observatory.

During September 2005 the Contractor sent a communications expert to
Quito to resolve the problem in getting the observation from Quito onto
the GTS. This was a successful mission.

**16 GSN Sites**

**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**

**During a typical 3 months period**

![](media/image3.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 over 30% since the Contractor began in
June 2004.

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
airport authorities are strongly urging them 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.

**GSN Sites Mexico (9)**

During this period the Contractor conducted missions to 8 of the 9
Mexican GSN sites. Choix 76311 was not visited because the Contractor
did not feel personal security was sufficient for the overland journey.

The Contractor did visit 3 additional Mexican observatories to evaluate
their operation as candidates for inclusion into the GCOS network. The
three sites visited were Chihuahua 76225, Veracruz 76692 and Tampico
76548. Verzcruz and Chihuahua were recommended by the contractor. See
Attachment A

All 12 observatories are operating satisfactorily and are within the
limits of the GCOS GSN requirements. Some of the observatories need some
improvement in terms of equipment and location of the instruments. The
Contractor's recommendations for these improvements are within the
individual Metadata File for each observatory.

All the statistics in this document concerning the reporting of surface
observations are derived from the NOAA Report
<http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/gcos/>. This report shows the Merida
76644 as transmitting hourly observations over the GTS. This is in
error. The hourly observations reported are performed at the airport and
by the Mexican Airport Aviation staff. The synops and the CLIMAT data
are taken at a different location by the Mexican Meteorological Service.
Please see the Metadata file for more information. The Contractor has
suggested the MMS assign a separate WMO Index number to the airport
observatory.

![](media/image4.wmf)

**The number of synops received at NOAA during the second half of 2005
increased by 927 because of the Contractor's efforts in activating
Salina Cruz 76833**

**METADATA**

During the past months the Contractor has dedicated a lot of effort in
creating Metadata files for all the GSN sites in the CAC. A primary
concern was determining exactly what is required in a Metadata file. The
contractor worked closely with NCDC to arrive at an acceptable list of
requirements and a useful file.

It was agreed that the Metadata File should include a description of the
observatory and its instruments as well as photographs of the
instruments and instrument field. These pictures are to be digital with
clear labels identifying the subject with directional references to at
least the 8 cardinal points of the compass.

Please see Attachment B Metadata Files. The photographs of all the
observatories are not included in this report because it would be too
cumbersome. Three photos have been included to serve as examples. Please
visit the Web Site <ftp://163.178.56.3/omm/> .

**HISTORICAL INFORMATION**

The Contractor reviewed and discussed the historical data that was
available at each of the GSN sites during the past year. The Contractor
was able to gather missing historical data at several of the sites and
has provided this information to NOAA. Please see Attachment C