Armenian State Hydrometeorological and Monitoring Service Offenbach 1
Armenia: IN BRIEF Armenia is located in Southern Caucasus region, bordering with Iran, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. The total territory of the country 29.800 km2, and the population is 3.2 million. The country has complex mountainous topography and wide range of altitudes: the highest peak is 4,090 m.a.s.l, while the lowest point is 375m. Offenbach 2
Armenia: IN BRIEF The climate is dry, the annual average precipitation amounts to 592mm, with the range of 250 1000mm. Annual average temperature is 5.5 0 C, with minimum recorded temperature of -42 0 C, and maximum recorded 43 0 C. Offenbach 3
Hydrometeorological hazards in Armenia Hail Frost Strong wind Icing Heavy Rainfall Flooding Drought Avalanche Offenbach 4
OBSERVATION NETWORK First observations started in 1843 in Gyumri and in 1844 in Yerevan Since then around 80 meteorological stations operated in Armenia in different periods Highest density of network was in 1972 77 stations WMO RAVI Climate Monitoring Wrokshop, DWD, Offenbach 5
OBSERVATION NETWORK Currently meteorological observations 47 stations Agroclimatological 33 stations Aerological 1 station Actinometric 7 stations Radiation 33 stations Ozonometric 1 station Hydrological 7 river basin stations with 94 gauging sites including 4 lake, 4 reservoir sites WMO RAVI Climate Monitoring Wrokshop, DWD, Offenbach 6
MAIN ACTIVITIES Product Weather forecast short range (HRM, WRF on cluster system) medium range monthly, seasonal Warning on dangerous and unfavorable phenomena Hydrological forecasts Agrometeorological forecasts Forecast of the index of ultraviolet radiation Assessment of the level of lake Sevan, rivers and reservoirs Assessment of current helio physical conditions Monitoring of climatic conditions of the previous month, season, year Assessment of the climate variability, climate change Offenbach 7
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT Scientific applied center for hydrometeorology and ecology Climate variability, Regional Climate Change Studies Division for Applied Climatology Improvement of existing and development of new methodologies for prediction Offenbach 8
Climate monitoring Input to: Annual bulletin on the climate in WMO RAVI BAMS State of the Climate ECA&D ECSM GPCC Offenbach 9
Satellite derived products Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring (CM SAF) DWD provides high quality, reliable data sets with high spatial resolution inter comparison of satellite data with observed values for solar radiation and albedo, validation of CM SAF products development and application of merging technique with surface data Offenbach 10
Solar radiation monthly maps Offenbach 11
In future More products: T2m and Precip. full field and Climatology for Caucasus Incoming solar radiation, albedo over Armenia (at present) and Caucasus (planned) (based on CM SAF merged with observed data) Drought monitoring (SPI) over Caucasus New extremes records (based on NCEP NCAR Reanalysis Tmax, Tmin) Development of monitoring page in the web site of Armstatehydromet Research on climate variability, change over Caucasus Offenbach 12
Gaps & Needs Strengthen human capacities Educational level, scientific and technical qualifications of the staff do not fully meet the current requirements Technical capacities Most of the equipment needs to be modernized, softwares upgraded, automated Observation network to be strengthened significantly Implement new methodologies, models Long Range Forecasting system Implement application models agrometeorological, hydrological etc. Offenbach 13
Gaps & Needs International, regional cooperation, To establish an effective system of cross border exchange of warnings among NMHSs, Timeliness, frequency, content, format and delivery to be specified between the NMHSs Cross border exchanges of warnings should not be limited to relatively short lived meteorological hazards To exchange for hazards of longer time scale, such as heat, cold, wet or dry spells, drought etc Offenbach 14
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