… says Nigeria is best in Met services
The enhance the fight against Low Level Wind Shear (LLW) the Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NiMET) has announced its plan to adopt an alternative technology; ‘Terminal Doppler Radar’ to complement the Low Level Wind Shear Alert System (LLWAS) that has been in use for some years.
It also said it is devising what is called ‘north-central approach’ which helps to study cloud physics over any area in the country.
Director General 0f NiMET, Professor Mansur Matazu, who disclosed this in a recent chat with aviation journalists in office in Abuja, recalled that the LLWAS which is already in 18 airports in the country started after the Sosoliso crash and is a phenomenon that is very dicey and dynamic, “something that happened within seconds and then it goes.
“Abinitio, we were not as an agency of government and also within the industry, able to track this, but after that incident, it became open to us; we came up with a proposal for this LLWAS and today we have done it in 18 airports,” he said.
However, he raised the challenge of vandalisation saying that at times before a project is finished it is vandalised.
Matazu said: “In Port Harcourt, they cut the whole mast from the base. In Lagos, even within the airport perimeter, we recorded vandalisation, but we were able to weather through the storm.
“One, we are working on alternative technology even though it is very expensive that we call Terminal Doppler Radar. We are also devising what we call a north-central approach which helps us to study cloud physics over any area in the country. With cloud physics knowledge, you would know whether clouds could result in microburst and it is from microburst from an entire set of clouds that we could have wind shear.
“So we are using multiple approaches to the wind shear just as they are doing in the US. They still have LLWAS though they don’t experience vandalisation, but they combine it with ladder and then Terminal Doppler Radar and also the North-Central Approach.
“So, we engaged a UK partner from the University of Leeds to acquire the knowledge and skill and we have the platform now. So we have done the initial test-running of the process and we want to go into large scale to complement the LLWAS. So it is one of our critical projects and every time, every period you see us running around, trying to get it.”
On the issue of vandalism, he said NiMET has engaged in community policing and “we have seen significant improvement with regards to security and also the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and other paramilitary authorities have been involved and they are helping us a lot.”
Continuing, the weather expert Nigeria has been assessed as the best Met Service in Africa providing technical advice and assistance to five countries in Africa. The countries are Niger, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso and also Somalia.
He harped on the need for partnership stating that weather is dynamic and it moves from one area to the other. “Even if you have the capability and you don’t share that expertise with your neighbours, I don’t think you are helping,” he said.
In his words: “We do provide technical service as I said. There is what we call WMO VCP (Voluntary Country Partnership), which is called in ICAO as ‘No Country Left Behind.’ So the weather is dynamic and it moves from one area to the other. Even if you have the capability and you don’t share that expertise with your neighbours, I don’t think you are helping.
“Like for Nigeria, if there is a problem in Niger for drought and flood, we have over a thousand kilometres of borders, all of them would move, that is number one. The reason America and other countries are called superpowers is by providing some of these support.
“So for you to get relevance, credibility and become big brother, you have to provide some support to the weaker community and with that we have achieved a lot as a country, we have been categorised as the best Met Service and they always refer to us if there is anything and I gave example with the issue of fertiliser. So, anything you have to start small and people will appreciate and value.
“So we have started that Volume Coverage Pattern (VCP) with World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) at no cost, but if I tell you, the VCP meeting that we attended, Nigeria was the only black nation because you have US, UK, Spain, Netherlands, eight of them plus Nigeria because we want to show the world that we are not a beggar nation in all ramifications, even in the science of weather and services, we are not waiting for any country.”
“We just had a meeting with the French Government, we are going to do a programme with them and they were very happy with what they have seen.
“This provides credibility, trust and relevance and with that you would get realised by the global community and they suggested Nigeria will help these countries under this United Nations financed Systematic Observation Financing Facility (SOFF).
“The essence of this SOFF is based on the UN Secretary General’s statement that in the next five years, all citizens in the world must have access to early warning; you have seen what happened in Libya; 10,000 people unaccounted for and more than 6,000 people confirmed dead in one incident. But if these people got early warning, it has been confirmed globally that if people get early warning on any imminent weather hazard, you are bound to reduce casualties by more than 70 per cent. But if they get the information one week ahead, it will increase.
“Like the way we give our Seasonal Climate Prediction, almost six months in advance, that is a very good lead time and based on this, the UN gathered people, financing facilities, all these development banks like the World Bank, they have contributed money and it is through this money that they said, ‘Okay, bigger nations should help weaker ones.’
“That was how they identified Nigeria and we are assisting Niger, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso and also Somalia. This is just the first phase, we are going to do an additional phase and in all these, our staff are getting involved, they are getting more exposed and Nigeria is getting more relevant as a big brother in Africa and in the world generally. We are also getting additional funding also to support our services.”