Contribution of Moroccan Meteorological Service to VOS and ARGO Programs

1. The Contribution of the Moroccan Meteorological Service to the VOS and ARGO programs Samir ISSARA, RabiaMerrouchi and NabilNouni NATIONAL METEOROLOGICAL SERVICE OF MOROCCO (DMN) BP 8106, OASIS. CASABLANCA – MOROCCO Tél : +212 522 902 008, Fax : +212 522 908 593 samir.issara@gmail.com, rabia.merrouchi@gmail.com and Nabil.nouni@gmail.com Abstract Recognizing the important role played by the WMO Marine Meteorology and Oceanography Programmes such as The Voluntary Observing Ship (VOS) and the Argo Profiling Float Program, the National Meteorological Service of Morocco set up in 2009, a tri-annual program to mark its contribution to those programs. the first project (VOS-Morocco) aims to equip six boats with automatic weather stations. The observations will be transmitted by satellite directly to the ground receiving station and indirectly to the NMS of Morocco through the GTS. In 2008, a joint action between Météo-France and NMS of Morocco helped to equip the vessel “AKNOUL” linking Casablanca and Marseille with BATOS system. The Moroccan NMS has established a regional maintenance center in Casablanca insuring maintenance activities for VOS ships docking in Moroccan ports. In this context, training activities and knowledge transfer in matter of maintenance and calibration of such automatic stations have been completed in collaboration with Météo France. Concerning the project ARGO, The NMS will receive and procede to the launching of the two argo profilers offered by IFREMER (France). Furthermore, the NMS present during the third session of the joint WMO-IOC commission (Marrakech, November 2009), its wish to implement a Regional Marine Instrument Center (RMIC). Thus, during the year 2010, two automatic weather stations VAISALA will be installed on vessels linking Moroccan and European ports and two argo profilers will be launched in the Atlantic Ocean. Furthermore, four synoptic manned stations will be created, in association with Royal Navy, in the North coasts (Mediterranean Sea) and the south of country on the Atlantic costs. The paper will present the aims, the consistency, the implementation plan and the progress report of the contribution of the NMS of Morocco to the all those programs.

2. The Contribution of the Moroccan Meteorological Service to the VOS and ARGO programs Project : VOS – MOROCCO • In 2008, a joint action between Météo-France and NMS of Morocco helped to equip the vessel “AKNOUL” linking Casablanca and Marseille with BATOS system. • The Moroccan NMS has established a regional maintenance center in Casablanca insuring maintenance activities for VOS ships docking in Moroccan ports. • Training activities and knowledge transfer in matter of maintenance and calibration of such automatic stations have been completed in collaboration with Météo France.

3. The Contribution of the Moroccan Meteorological Service to the VOS and ARGO programs Project : VOS – MOROCCO Objectives : VOS-Morocco aims to developed ship marine observation and to contribute to the VOS international program • Consistence : • VOS-Morocco Consist on equip six boats with automatic weather stations. • The observations will be transmitted by satellite directly to the ground receiving station and indirectly to the NMS of Morocco through the GTS. • Achievement period: 2010 – 2012 • Progress statement : • 2 AWS (VAISALA) will be implemented on 2 ships in 2010 : • 1 - The ship "Oued ZIZ" COMANAV company, which makes rotation between Casablanca, Agadir and Tangier Med2 - The ship “ZAGORA” IMTC company that makes rotation between Casablanca, Spain, France and Italy.

4. The Contribution of the Moroccan Meteorological Service to the VOS and ARGO programs Project : VOS – MOROCCO Consistency : Each of these mobile automatic weather stations is equipped with: A digital barometer for measuring atmospheric pressure, A sensor temperature / humidity with free thumbnail to measure temperature and relative humidity of the air Ultrasonic system for measuring wind force and wind direction, A temperature sensor for measuring the temperature of the seawater A unit of the acquisition, processing and visualization software solution provided adequate A complete hardware interface data transmission by satellite incorporating a GPS system for monitoring the vessel's position. • Specifications: • The shipboardautomaticweather station can perform the following functions: • The acquisition of measurement sensors and processing, coding and archiving of meteorological data collected, • The visualization of measurement data and settings vessel (name, code, travel speed, Cap ...) on the user interface, • The check, monitoring and correction of measured data, • The manual insertion of other comments made by the observer on the ship (cloud cover, present weather, cloud type, visibility ...) • The message encoding SHIP and automatic transmission in slots configurableSatellite transmission of coded messages to the Global Transmission System (WMO-GTS) • Recording and archiving of meteorological information and messages in a database. • Viewing the status of sensors and their configuration for installation and maintenance.

5. The Contribution of the Moroccan Meteorological Service to the VOS and ARGO programs Project : ARGO – MOROCCO Objectives : - ARGO-Morocco aims to developed marine observation and to participate to international project ARGO Consistence : - We will start with launching of the two Argo profilers offered by IFREMER (France). Achievement Period: 2010 Progress statement: The profilers will be received and lunched in the second semester of 2010