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Encyclopedia > Meteorological Service of New Zealand
View of the MetService building in the Wellington Botanic Garden, from Tinakori Hill.
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View of the MetService building in the Wellington Botanic Garden, from Tinakori Hill.

Meteorological Service of New Zealand Limited (MetService) has been in existence since 1992 when it was established as a State-Owned Enterprise. It employs about 190 staff and its headquarters are in Wellington, New Zealand. The Wellington Botanic Garden, Wellington, New Zealand, cover 25 hectares of land on the side of the hill between Thorndon and Kelburn, near central Wellington. ... State-Owned Enterprises in New Zealand (known as SOEs) are registered companies listed under Schedules 1 and 2 of the State-Owned Enterprises Act 1986. ... Wellington (Te Whanganui-a-Tara or Poneke in Māori) is the capital of New Zealand, the countrys second largest urban area and the most populous national capital in Oceania. ...


As New Zealand's national meteorological service, MetService produces and issues forecasts and official weather warnings on behalf of New Zealand's Ministry of Transport and is certified by the Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand. Meteorology is the scientific study of the atmosphere that focuses on weather processes and forecasting. ...


International media, aviation and energy business is conducted under the name Metra Information Limited.


MetService has been certified to the ISO 9001 standard since November 1995. ISO 9001 certification of a fish wholesaler at the Tsukiji fish market ISO 9000 is a family of ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) standards for quality management systems. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Contents


History

The observation and study of New Zealand's weather started as early as the 1840s. The weather forecasting service began in 1861, when a spate of shipwrecks prompted the Government to start a storm warning service as part of the then Marine Department. // Events and Trends Technology First use of general anesthesia in an operation, by Crawford Long The first electrical telegraph sent by Samuel Morse on May 24, 1844 from Baltimore to Washington, D.C.. War, peace and politics First signing of the Treaty of Waitangi (Te Tiriti o Waitangi) on February... 1861 is a common year starting on Tuesday. ...


Forecasting remained a marine service until 1926, when it became part of the newly-formed Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. At the outbreak of World War Two in 1939, forecasting became part of the Royal New Zealand Air Force. The focus on aviation continued with a move in 1964 to the then Department of Civil Aviation, which in 1968 became part of a new "super ministry", the Ministry of Transport. 1926 (MCMXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) is the air force arm of the New Zealand Defence Force. ... 1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1964 calendar). ...


During the 1980s there was increasing pressure on government funding for meteorology in New Zealand, together with a government-wide move to "user-pays" for specialised services, and to more autonomy and accountability for government departments. A combination of commercial competition in the deregulated market for meteorological services and reform of publicly funded science led to the establishment of MetService as a state-owned enterprise on 1 July 1992. The 1980s decade refers to the years from 1980 to 1989, inclusive, informally sometimes including the years 1979, 1990 and 1991. ... A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is an enterprise, often a corporation, owned by a government. ... July 1 is the 182nd day of the year (183rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 183 days remaining. ... 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ...


World Meteorological Organization

The world's national meteorological and hydrological Services work with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), a specialised agency of the United Nations. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is an intergovernmental organization with a membership of 187 Member States and Territories. ... United Nations - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ...


As part of the WMO World Weather Watch, MetService sends observational data gathered from the New Zealand region to other WMO member countries around the world. This is used as input to computer models of the weather at the world's major numerical weather prediction centres. Numerical weather prediction is the science of predicting the weather using models of the atmosphere and computational techniques. ...

MetService operates a data collection network within New Zealand. It complies with recognised international standards as prescribed by the WMO over and around New Zealand. In particular, data are collected through:

The Chief Executive of MetService or their designate is the permanent representative of New Zealand with the WMO. Rawinsonde weather balloon just after launch. ... Doppler radar uses the Doppler effect to measure the relative velocity information from a radar system. ... Map of the Tasman Sea Satellite photo of the Tasman Sea The Tasman Sea is the large body of water between Australia and New Zealand, some 2000 kilometres (1250 miles) across. ...


Weather Forecasts for New Zealand

Forecasts and warnings funded by the New Zealand government include:

  • Land:
    • Basic public and mountain forecasts
    • Warnings of hazardous weather affecting land areas
  • Marine:
    • Warnings of gales, storms and hurricanes for New Zealand's marine area of responsibility, METAREA XIV
    • Synopses and forecasts for New Zealand's marine area of responsibility, METAREA XIV
    • Warnings and forecasts for coastal waters
  • Aviation (ICAO services):
    • Meteorological Watch Office (MWO)
    • Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre (VAAC)
    • OPMET data.

A gale is a wind of at least 28 knots, 32 MPH, or 51km/h; and up to 55 knots, 63 MPH, or 102km/h. ... The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), an agency of the United Nations, develops the principles and techniques of international air navigation and fosters the planning and development of international air transport to ensure safe and orderly growth. ...

Metra Information

Metra Information Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Meteorological Service of New Zealand Limited and provides weather and information presentation products and services globally to

  • Energy generators combined cycle gas turbine operators, hydro power operators and wind farm operators), retailers and network managers
  • Television stations, via the Weatherscape XT weather presentation system
  • Print media (newspapers and magazines)
  • Mobile communications operators.

Hydropower (or waterpower) harnesses the energy of moving or falling water. ... Wind turbines in Neuenkirchen, Dithmarschen (Germany). ...

The Pacific

MetService maintains close links with the meteorological agencies of various Pacific Island states.


All warnings of hazardous weather for the South Pacific region, normally received from the Nadi Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre, are forwarded to Radio New Zealand International and to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.


MetService provides backup for the main warning and forecasting responsibilities of the Nadi Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre, should that centre temporarily shut down or be cut off, possibly due to a direct hit by a cyclone.


Numerical Weather Prediction

The cooperative relationship among the world's national meteorological services enables the sharing of much weather information, including the output from global numerical weather prediction (NWP) models. Meteorologists at MetService routinely use information from the world's major modelling centres for day-to-day production of forecasts and weather warnings. Numerical weather prediction is the science of predicting the weather using models of the atmosphere and computational techniques. ...


The global models that MetService uses generally provide reliable forecasts of weather features, like highs and lows, over forecast periods of several days; however, they are less effective at predicting small-scale weather features like sea breezes and localised showers. Such features are often strongly affected by the local geography, which tends to be poorly represented in the global models. A high, or a high pressure area, is a region where the atmospheric pressure is greatest with relation to the surrounding area. ... A large low-pressure system swirls off the southeastern coast of Iceland, illustrating the maxim that nature abhors a vacuum. ... A sea breeze or seabreeze is a thermally-forced mesoscale (i. ...


An effective way of dealing with this problem is to use another type of NWP model known as a limited-area model. MetService routinely runs a limited-area model based on MM5. The primary model configuration for regional forecasting in New Zealand has a horizontal spacing between grid points of 12 km, which allows weather features down to about 50 km wide to be represented (highs and lows are thousands of kilometres wide). This domain is nested within a much larger domain of 60 km grid spacing, which enables the weather to be modelled over quite a large geographical area for reasonable computational cost. MM5 is a medium scale computer model for creating atmospheric simulations, weather forecasts. ...


Sources

De Lisle, John Felix. - Sails to satellites: a history of meteorology in New Zealand - History of the New Zealand Meteorological Service from its inception through to 1985, written by a former Director. While published by the then New Zealand Meteorological Service, the author states in the Preface that "The Service, which sponsored this book, has had no influence upon the interpretation of historical events, or the judgements made." - New Zealand Meteorological Service, 1986. - ISBN 0-447-07300-X


Steiner, J. Thomas, John R. Martin, Neil D. Gordon and Malcolm A. Grant. - Commercialisation in the provision of meteorological services in New Zealand. - Meteorological Applications, 4, 247-257 (1997).


External links


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