**REPORT ON THE GCOS INSPECTION TRIP**

**Grootfontein, Gababeb and Keetman'shoop**

**1^st^ -- 13^th^ October 2006**

**1.0 *Background:***

The purpose of the inspection trip was to inspect the status and
performance of Meteorological Instruments, the locations of
Meteorological enclosures, test and calibrate thermometers and
Barometers, carryout minor repairs and advise as necessary on the
maintenance of all observing systems, measure and record metadata at all
stations and to check that all Meteorological Installations are in
accordance with the recommended WMO standards and that observations are
in line with WMO acceptable methods of observations.

The trip started on 1^st^ to 13^th^ October 2006. Mr. Sepiso Mwangala
and Martin Philander from the National Meteorological Service of Namibia
joined us on this trip. These officers assisted us in providing valuable
information about the stations we visited and also in making
arrangements for accommodation and other logistics.

2.  ***Grootfontein***

    1.  ***Site Locations***

The station is situated about 500km north of Windhoek. The coordinates
of the station are Latitude 19˚34′ South and Longitude 18^º^ 05′ East
with an altitude of 1469m above mean sea level. The station is located
in a residential area. Instruments are installed in the yard of a house
used as an office. This environment is not suitable for a meteorological
a enclosure as the office and the hedge around the fence act as
obstructions to instruments hence the observations do not reflect a true
picture of the environmental conditions.

> The management is aware of this problem. There is however, a plan to
> relocate the Met enclosure to a suitable site within the Grootfontein
> Airport Premises. At the time of our visit consultations were in
> progress to relocate this station.

3.  ***Instruments***

> There are a few instruments at this station and are described as
> follows:

1.  ***Raingauges***

> There is a 5″ copper rain gauge. The instrument is well installed
> except that the hedge acts as an obstruction to it hence the measured
> values may not reflect the correct rainfall.
>
> The automatic rain gauge is a bit old and it is not easy to remove the
> funnel cover due to slight dents. The height above ground is within
> the recommended standard.

2.  ***Thermometer Screen***

The screen is in good condition and it is mounted on a sturdy steel
stand. It only needs to be repainted.

3.  ***Thermometers***

> Thermometers are well maintained and the wick and reservoir are kept
> clean. During comparison of the thermometers with the inspector's
> thermometer it was noted that the minimum thermometer could not
> respond, however, close examination did not reveal anything abnormal
> with the instrument. *See inspection record sheet for details*.
>
> There are no soil thermometers at this station.

4.  ***Barometer***

The station uses the PA11 Digital Barometer. The barometer compares very
well with the traveling standard. The installation records were not
available for all the instruments.

5.  ***Barograph***

The Micro Barograph manufactured by Thies Clima is used at this station.
The instrument is in a good working condition and it is well maintained.
The charts for this instrument are manufactured in Namibia -- but no
numbers are given to these charts.

6.  ***Sunshine Recorder***

> There is no sun shine recorder at this station.

7.  ***Evaporimeter***

> The evaporimeter is a class A Pan. The pan needed a bit of leveling.

8.  ***Thermohygraph***

A thermo-hygrograph manufactured by Thies Clima has been in use since
September 2006. The instrument is placed in the Stevenson Screen in the
Met enclosure. It is well maintained.

9.  ***Cup Counter Anemometer***

Cup counter manufactured by Vaisala is installed at the correct height
in the Met enclosure. Details of the instruments appeared to have faded
away hence it was difficult to put them on the record sheet.

4.  ***Observations***

Exposure of the instruments does not meet the required standards. The
site is not clear from obstructions. The yard is fenced with hedge which
is not a conducive environment for instrument's exposure. The station is
near buildings and dusty road, as a result this environment has adverse
effects on the instruments.

5.  ***Gobabeb***

Gababeb Meteorological Station was established on the 1^st^ October 1962
as a rainfall station. The station has the following coordinates:
Latitude 23^º^ 33′.67″ South and Longitude 15^º^ 02′.47″ East and it is
420m above mean sea level. The station is located in the Gobabeb
Training and Research Center approximately 300m from the Kuiseb River.
The met enclosure is well positioned and is clear from obstructions.

Observations are taken by volunteer observers under the aegis of the
Desert Research Foundation of Namibia hence the station reporting times
are 0600 Z, 1200 and 1800.

6.  ***Instruments***

    1.  ***Raingauges***

The 5″ copper raingauge is in good working condition. The raingauge
height above ground was noted to be 97.5cm a height which is below the
recommended height of 1.2m above ground. Advice was given to adjust this
height to the recommended level, otherwise the instrument is well
maintained. The available automatic raingauge is old and unserviceable.

2.  ***Thermometer Screen***

The Stevenson Screen is a bit old but it is still in use and it is well
maintained. It needs to be replaced.

3.  ***Thermometers***

The maximum, minimum, dry and wet thermometers are available. The
thermometers were compared with the inspector's thermometer. With the
exception of the maximum thermometer, the other three thermometers
compared favourably with the inspector's thermometer. This maximum
thermometer may need replacement. The grass minimum thermometer is not
available. Five soil thermometers from depth 5 - 60cm are available and
were noted to give correct readings. The 100 and 120cm are not available
and may need to be replaced.

4.  ***Barometer***

The station has no Barometer.

5.  ***Barograph***

The station uses a weekly barograph manufactured by Thies Clima. The
instrument was compared with the traveling standard Barometer and found
to be giving higher pressure readings. It was adjusted until it gave
readings which were within the standard traveling Barometer readings.

6.  ***Sunshine Recorder***

The sunshine recorder instrument manufactured by Campbell Stokes is
available. The instrument is well installed and maintained.

7.  ***Evaporimeter***

Class A Pan is available and it is well maintained. Readings are taken
from a ruler attached to it.

8.  ***Thermohygrograph***

The clock for this instrument is set to work as a weekly clock. The
instrument is in good working condition.

9.  ***Cup Counter Anemometer***

The cup Counter Anemometer is manufactured by Casella. Details for the
instrument appeared to have faded away hence it was not easy to take its
serial number.

10. ***Anemometer Instruments***

There is no conventional wind system at this station. A pressure plate
has been installed and is being used to estimate the wind speed and
direction. Although this instrument gives an indication of the wind
profile it would have been better if a suitable wind system could have
been installed. I strongly recommend that consideration be made for the
provision of suitable wind system to replace pressure plates.

7.  **Additional Instruments**

Gobabeb is a research station, hence additional instruments to monitor
and measure parameters such as fog and dew have been added to the list
at this station. Gobabeb is in the Namib Desert where rainfall is low
hence measuring fog and dew is important as it provides researchers with
an idea of how much water is available in the air. This gives the
researchers an idea of what plants and micro organisms can survive under
these harsh conditions. Available records revealed that about six
litters of water is sometimes collected from these instruments in a day.

Additional instruments found at this station are fog and dew collectors.

8.  **General Observations**

Gobabeb has a suitable meteorological enclosure. The enclosure is
located in an open space and it was noted that with the exception of
dust and sand there are no other local effects. The meteorological
enclosure is wide and well fenced. The instruments are well exposed and
reference points for visual observations are well positioned and are
noticeable from the met enclosure.

9.  ***Keetmanshoop***

> Keetmanshoop was established on 1^st^ October 1948 as a rainfall
> station. The coordinates of this station are Latitude 26^o^ 32\`\`
> SOUTH and longitude 18^o^ 06\`\` EAST and it is 1066m above mean sea
> level. The station is located within Keetmanshoop Airport.

**10 *Instruments***

***10.1 Raingauges***

5″ copper raingauge is well installed and maintained. The automatic
raingauge is in good working condition and well exposed.

2.  ***Thermometer Screen***

> The Stevenson screen is worn out, and the door hinges are broken and
> to close it required a piece of wire to hold it on the lock knob. The
> screen needs to be replaced.

3.  ***Thermometers***

> Four thermometers normally found in the Stevenson screen are
> available. These thermometers were calibrated against the inspector's
> thermometer and readings were found to fall within the required
> readings. However, these thermometers have never been calibrated ever
> since they were used.
>
> Soil thermometers are not available and the only thermometer which is
> available though broken is the 120cm.

***10.4 Barometer***

The PA21 and Fortin Barometers manufactured by Vasaila and F. Wilh
Lambrecht respectively are available at this station. Both barometers
are in good working condition.

***10.5 Barograph***

A micro Barograph manufactured by Thies Clima is available. It was
inspected and found to be in good working condition.

***10.6 Sunshine Recorder***

The instrument is well mounted and is well maintained.

***10.7 Evaporimeter***

Class A evaporation pan has been installed. The pan is well maintained
and we observed it is being cleaned regularly.

***10.8 Cup Counter***

This is a product of Vaisala. It is well installed, but unfortunately
other details like serial number could not be obtained as they have
faded away.

***10.9 Observations***

The Instruments at this station are well maintained and well exposed.
There are no local effects that could affect the observations. We learnt
that dust storms do occur occasionally.

10. ***Windhoek***

    2.  ***Instrument***

An inspection of instruments in Windhoek was carried out. All
instruments were in good working condition.

3.  ***Upper Air Sounding***

At the time of our visit there were no upper air surroundings being
made. Mr. Martin Philander informed us that they had just received the
consignment for the consumables.

We were informed that the hydrogen generator was in good working
condition. However, the management still expressed the desire to have
their maintenance technician trained on the maintenance of the hydrogen
generator. We noted that the equipment has not been in use for a very
long time.

**12.0 Performance of the GSN Stations.**

Monitoring of the data through the GTS has revealed that there is very
low data going through the GTS. As it has been observed through the
inspection carried out at these stations there problems at these
stations mainly due to none availability of instruments. Further more
the mode of communications at these stations is not suitable as they are
linked to the main centre in Windhoek but only through HF radio
communication which is not reliable. The monitoring chart for the month
of September is attached for further verification.

**13.0 *Recommendations***

Following our visit to the GSN stations and the inspection of the
Meteorological facilities at these stations, we would like to make the
following recommendations:-

**13.*1 Grootfontein*:**

As it has been indicated, the location of the met enclosure is not
suitable for Meteorological Observations. It is strongly recommended
that this site be relocated to a suitable location to be determined by
the Namibian Authorities.

**13.2 *Instruments recommended for replacement***.

It is also recommended that the following instruments be considered for
replacement at each of the stations indicated below:-

+-------------------+--------------------------------------------------+
| ***Station***     | ***Instrument***                                 |
+-------------------+--------------------------------------------------+
| *                 | -   Grass minimum thermometer                    |
| **Grootfontein*** |                                                  |
|                   | ```{=html}                                       |
|                   | <!-- -->                                         |
|                   | ```                                              |
|                   | -   Automatic Rain gauge                         |
|                   |                                                  |
|                   | -   Minimum Thermometer                          |
|                   |                                                  |
|                   | -   All depth sizes of soil thermometers         |
|                   |                                                  |
|                   | -   Sun Shine Recorder                           |
|                   |                                                  |
|                   | -   Complete Wind System                         |
|                   |                                                  |
|                   | -   Refresher Training for Observers.            |
|                   |                                                  |
|                   | -                                                |
+-------------------+--------------------------------------------------+
| ***Gobabeb***     | -   Automatic Rain gauge                         |
|                   |                                                  |
|                   | -   Barometer                                    |
|                   |                                                  |
|                   | -   Stevenson Screen                             |
|                   |                                                  |
|                   | -   Grass Minimum Thermometer                    |
|                   |                                                  |
|                   | -   Complete Wind System                         |
+-------------------+--------------------------------------------------+
| *                 | -   Stevenson Screen                             |
| **Keetmanshoop*** |                                                  |
|                   | -   All Soil Thermometers                        |
|                   |                                                  |
|                   | -   Automatic Rain gauge                         |
|                   |                                                  |
|                   | -   Complete Wind System                         |
|                   |                                                  |
|                   | -   Refresher Training for Observers             |
+-------------------+--------------------------------------------------+