ASEAN-ROK Training Workshop on the Use of Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) Product, Seoul, Korea, 30 October – 3 November 2006

Meteorologists are continuously putting efforts to improve the accuracy in weather forecasting. One of the efforts is by employing numerical weather prediction (NWP) using the power of computers to make a forecast. Complex computer programs, also known as forecast models, run on supercomputers and provide predictions on many atmospheric variables such as temperature, pressure, wind, and rainfall.

Except for Singapore, the capacity of many ASEAN countries in generating the NWP products is limited due to the unavailability of sophisticated equipment such as supercomputer and other tools. In this regard, these countries have used various products of NWP from other countries such as Japan and Korea. Within ASEAN, the ASEAN Specialised Meteorology Centre located in Singapore has also shared the NWP products to the other ASEAN countries.

In order to improve the capacity of ASEAN in NWP technology and forecasting accuracy, the Korean Meteorology Administration (KMA) will organize the ASEAN-ROK Training Workshop on the Use of Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) Product in Seoul, Korea, on 30 October – 3 November 2006. With funding support from the ASEAN-ROK Special Cooperation Fund, each ASEAN country is invited to send up to 2 weather specialists/forecasters in the Training Workshop. From the KMA’s point of view, the feedback received from the ASEAN countries will be expected to improve the KMA Global NWP model.

During the Training Workshop, to be led by several KMA experts and also WMO specialist, the participants will be introduced to the Numerical Weather Systems of KMA, undertake lectures on various topics and will be involved in hands on exercises on weather forecasting experiments with NWP products. They will also be requested to present country reports pertaining to the progress of weather forecasting in their respective countries. A discussion will be undertaken at the end of the Training Workshop to discuss future cooperation activities.