President’s Report for the March 2007 Newsletter                  

Just recently, the committee of the Meteorological Society received notification that the society’s profits from the scientifically successful 2006 conference (held jointly with the Hydrological Society and the New Zealand Association of Resource Management) has amounted to about $10 000.  One of the topics of discussion at a recent committee meeting was how the society can best use this money.  If you have any suggestions or ideas, please let one of the committee members know so that they can be considered.

The 2007 conference will be held jointly with AMOS in Melbourne in early 2008.  We still need to hold our AGM in November and are in the process of organising a function around this.  It is likely that this will be held in Wellington.

This year the Society will be awarding its third Kidson Medal.  This Medal is awarded to the author of an outstanding scientific paper published in a refereed scientific journal during the preceding three years.  The deadline for nominations is the 30^th of April.  Our first medal recipient was Prof. Andy Sturman and the second was Dr. Jim Renwick.  The third medal will be presented at the Royal Society of New Zealand Awards night to be held in Dunedin in November.  Details of this event will follow.

Lastly, following the huge success of the last inaugural MetSoc photo competition in 2005, a similar competition in being held in 2007.  More details can be found on page in the next news email.

Until next time,

Kim Dirks

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                                Met Society around the regions…                               

- Auckland (Vice president Sally Garrett)

The Auckland Branch started the year with two informal presentations themed “Recent Adventures in Meteorology”.

Andrew Peace provided a description of the work he has been completing with the Snowy Hydro cloud seeding program and of life in the “hot seat” providing meso-scale weather forecasts for the project. Snowy Hydro Limited is conducting a six-year research project of winter cloud seeding to assess the feasibility of increasing snow precipitation in the Snowy Mountains.  The New South Wales Government approved legislation to enable the cloud seeding research project to commence in winter 2004.

Our Auckland Vice-President Sally Garrett provided an overview of her recent adventure in meteorology as the METOC advisor to the New Zealand Olympic sailing team for the Qingdao International Regatta, a test event at the Olympic venue. The sailing for the 2008 Olympics will be run in the coastal city of Qingdao on the Yellow Sea.  Sally provided information on the climate, the sailing venue and the “frustrations” associated with competing teams.

Another seminar was held on March 28^th presented by our Journal editor Brian Giles entitled “Before the frontal model: the development of meteorological charts in the nineteenth century”

The talk described the development of meteorological charts during the nineteenth century.  Cartographic depiction of weather data was first muted by Brandes in 1816 but the first extant map of lines depicting pressure was produced by Loomis in the USA in 1846.  During the middle of the century there were various experiments (Galton, Fitzroy, Buchan) showing ways of illustrating "current" weather.  The isobaric chart as we know it today evolved in the latter part of the century (various weather services, Abercromby, Koppen, Mohn) and culminated in the Norwegian School model in 1920.

Brian was asked at this talk about where the word ‘cyclone’ originated.  “I've done some research on the net and it seems that it also was deliberately coined and based on the Greek word for 'coils of a snake'.  According to Oxford Dictionary it was first used in 1848 but according to Wikipedia it was coined by a British-Indian scientist and meteorologist - Henry Piddington (1797-1858) - in a book published in 1845 on tropical storms around Mauritius although he had described (for the first time) a tropical storm (without using the word) in 1839.  The word received instant recognition by meteorologists when it was used in his book 'The Sailor's Horn-book for the Law of Storms' 1848 hence back to OED.  It is interesting that although he used the term for tropical storms the rest of the world widened it to all storms - probably because of both the thinking of the time that all storms were circular and the debate in America between Redfield and Espy about their causes” ….. Brian Giles

The focus of the winter period is to increase the turn out to the branch seminars and gain visibility for the Society.

Christchurch (Vice President Mikhail Titov)

Mikhail has organised and run weather computer model tutorials (the MM5 MPP model on an IBM P575) for a group including several members of Christchurch Met Society.

Members were also invited to an atmospherics group meeting on Wednesday, 28th March, courtesy of Steve George.

  At this meeting there was a viewing of a video called 'The Great Global Warming Swindle', as shown recently on channel 4 in the UK: http://www.channel4.com/science/microsites/G/great_global_warming_swindle/index.html

A webpage containing a link to this strange collection of Global Warming nay-saying is at http://www.celsias.com/blog/2007/03/11/the-great-global-warming-swindle/

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                    And from the WAIRARAPA WEATHER WATCHERS (Alex Neale)                      

A meeting of Wairarapa Weather Watchers on Monday evening 5 February 2007 attracted sixteen members (including Bill Lees from Melbourne) and one visitor from Bay of Plenty.  Explanations were given of the state of weather forecasting. Currently the 5-day forecast available in some newspapers and at about 12.30 pm weekdays (1 pm weekends) from National Radio, provide good general weather information; although the concentration is very much limited to cloudiness and precipitation, wind information appears to be limited to strong or gale force events.  For short-range indications of cloudiness and precipitation, the best available information is that provided by time-lapse loops of weather rainfall radar displays and time-lapse satellite cloud loops available from some TV channels and the internet - the recipient having to apply DIY techniques.

On Monday 12 March eighteen attended a meeting - just sneaked it in before summer ended with the big blow.  Our topic for the evening was a review of the recent UK Met Office seasonal forecast for the winter-cold expected in southern England and Europe.  We now have a winter recess and the next meeting is likely to be in October.

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2007 AGM

Given that the society's annual conference will be held in early 2008, the committee will need to go ahead with an AGM at the usual time in November independently of the conference.  The Kidson Medal will be presented at this event as well.  Committee thinking at this stage is that the AGM ill be held in Wellington, and an announcement will be made later as to the time and place.

2008 Conference

The plan is to hold the society's 2007 conference in early 2008 (January or February) jointly with AMOS in Melbourne. 

Quote a letter to this society by Kevin Walsh of AMOS:  “The 2008 conference looks quite large, with a session being contributed from the Association of Wind Engineers and some involvement also from the Institute of Marine Engineering Science and Technology. We have also attracted a substantial sponsorship from Geoscience Australia. It would be good to have your involvement, as I think the meeting then would be particularly attractive to attendees in the region.”

WEATHER AND CLIMATE JOURNAL:

Volume 27 2007 should be with the printer in May 2007. 

Papers for 2008 edition are still being sort.

                        KIDSON MEDAL --- CALL FOR NOMINATIONS

                                (Deadline, April 30, 2007)

The Meteorological Society of New Zealand (Inc) is now calling for nominations for the Edward Kidson Medal.  Our first medal recipient was Prof. Andy Sturman in 2003 and the second was Dr. Jim Renwick in 2005.

The award is named in honour of Edward Kidson, Director of the New Zealand Meteorological Service from 1927 to 1939.  Kidson was instrumental in placing New Zealand meteorology on a sound scientific footing and is regarded as a key figure in the development of meteorology and climatology in this country.  His own scientific work in meteorology covered a wide field and he had an international reputation for his papers on Southern Hemisphere atmospheric circulation. His papers on New Zealand’s climate remained standard works for many years.

The Edward Kidson Medal will be awarded to the author of an outstanding scientific paper published in a refereed scientific journal during the preceding three years, which: 

- advances the science of meteorology and/or climatology, or

- advances understanding of the influence of meteorology and/or climatology or other meteorological factors in other fields of scientific or human endeavour, or conversely, the influence of other sciences or endeavours on meteorology and/or climatology, or 

- reports on significant and novel scientific, educational, social or economic application of meteorology and/or climatology.

 Nominees for the Edward Kidson medal should normally be New Zealand residents, but others who have a significant connection with New Zealand, particularly in the field of the atmospheric sciences will be considered.  All nominations must either be by a current member of the Meteorological Society of New Zealand or include a written endorsement by a current member.

Nominations, with supporting statements and including copies of the relevant paper, should be sent to the Secretary Meteorological Society of New Zealand (Inc) PO Box 6523 Te Aro Wellington

The deadline for nominations is April 30, 2007.  The winner will be announced in November 2007.

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From the Royal Society

Call for Nominations

The Academy Council of the Royal Society of New Zealand has invited Met Society members to be mindful of their annual call for nominations medals and awards. 

The closing date for all medals and awards is 30 June 2007.

 Electronic copies of the information and application forms are available from awards@...; 

copies are also available on the Society's website http://www.rsnz.org/awards/academy_awards/

Have Your Say on Science

The Chief executive of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Steve Thompson, comments that the

 Royal Society is extending its encouragement of dialogue around science and technology 

issues by opening a new discussion group service (it opened on 23 March,

 World Meteorological Day).

  Each of the "Science topics" listed on the RSNZ website www.rsnz.org  now has a discussion

 group associated with it (click on the >science topics on the left of the page). 

Councilors, Committee Chairs and members are encouraged to monitor the groups that

 they are interested in, and provide responses or information where needed. 

To subscribe to any of the 32 groups hosted, go to

 http://www.rsnz.org/directory/elist.php and check the relevant boxes.

                                     IPCC Climate Workshop

This RSNZ event is to be held in the National Library Auditorium in Thorndon

 Wellington, on 25 May 2007, with registration expected to cost around $100. 

 Check the website for more information.

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