OR/14/005 Appendix 2 Tanzanian Meteorological Agency (TMA)

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Vye-Brown, C, Crummy, J, Smith, K, Mruma,A and Kabelwa H. 2014. Volcanic hazards in Tanzania. Nottingham, UK, British geological Survey. (OR/14/005).

A meeting was held on the 25th October 2013 between staff of the TMA and BGS at the TMA office, Ubungo Plaza, Dar es Salaam on 25th October 2013 to discuss further work on Disaster Risk Reduction to help with the TMA Severe Weather Forecasting Demonstration Project (SWFDP)

Aim

To understand the work programs, capability, areas of interest and responsibility of BGS and TMA to investigate planning for effective management and response of volcanic unrest and eruptions in Tanzania and potential areas for future collaboration.

Participants

  1. Dr Hamza Kabelwa — Director of Forecasting Services (DFS)
  2. Dr Ladislaus Chang’a — Director of Research and Applied Meteorology (DRA)
  3. Dr Charlotte Vye-Brown — BGS Volcanologist
  4. Dr Julia Crummy — BGS Volcanologist
  5. Mr Augustine Kanemba — Manager of Marketing and Public Relations (MMPR)
  6. Mr Wilberforce Kikwasi — Analyst Incharge (ANI)
  7. Mr J Loning’o- MCC — Manager of Climatology and Climate Change
  8. Mr Wilbert Timiza — Acting Manager of International Affairs (Ag. MIA)
  9. Ms Hazla Masoud — Meteorologist — International Officer (MIO)

Director General of TMA and PR of Tanzania with WMO, Dr Agnes Kijazi: Prior to a group meeting with interested parties, BGS met with the Director General of the Tanzania Meteorological Agency who gave approval and encouragement for her staff to talk openly with BGS to investigate potential future collaboration.

TMA

TMA is the National Early-Warning Centre for meteorological-related hazards in Tanzania and it is mandated to provide daily information and updates on natural hazards to the public. TMA run a 24/7 operational service but would like capacity development in several areas. TMA are looking to establish a MoU with the Geological Survey of Tanzania in order to provide better information to the public and link real-time observation points for data exchange.

Organisational structure of TMA

  • Director General Division
  • Forecasting Services Division
  • Research and Applied Meteorology Services Division
  • Supporting Services Division
  • Technical Services division

1. Forecasting Services Division

Under this division there are Networking Operations, the Central Forecasting Office, and the Marine and Aviation Sections. This division covers issues relating to natural hazards including tsunamis, offshore extreme weather, earthquakes (marine services) and volcanic ash. Work is delivered through the network operations group (national observing stations), central forecasting office, (producing short and seasonal forecasts), with GTS and global networks.

2. Research and Applied Meteorology Division

This division includes the: Manager of Environment and Research (MER), Manager of Agricultural Meteorology (MAM) and Manager of Climatology and Climate Change (MCC). The division covers research and environmental issues aiming to enhance collaboration both within and beyond Tanzania in the areas of climatology, climate change (including historical weather) and applied meteorology. This section undertakes training of students from higher education institutions to short training courses to provide students with practical operational experience.

3. Supporting Services Division

This division deals with human resources, finance and administration.

4. Technical Services Division

Under this division there are Technical Services, Information and Computer Technology (ICT) Sections. The division undertakes all meteorological equipment maintenance including one RADAR in Dar es Salaam and another which is currently being installed in Mwanza. The divison is also responsible for Information Technology for TMA.

Key areas of consideration for monitoring natural hazards

Marine Service

Information about earthquakes and Tsunami in the region is delivered by 3 regional Tsunami service provides:

  • Inter-governmental Oceanographic Commission — IOC — tsunami program service provider
  • Regional undersea Earthquakes and Regional Tsunami Service Providers — RTSPs (Australia, India and Indonesia)
  • TMA as the National Early Warning Centre for undersea earthquakes and generated tsunamis has responsibility for the evaluation, modelling and delivery of information on the occurrence of earthquakes in the Indian Ocean, and for tsunamis (including wave arrival time, wave height, run-up and inundation areas) impact on the Tanzania coastline.

Information on earthquake and tsunamis occurrence from the other RTSPs is delivered to TMA through the WMO Global Telecommunication System (GTS) through fax, mobile phones, emails and RTSPs websites. Information on earthquakes is delivered within 5 minutes of occurrence and updates on tsunami potential delivered within 10 minutes after an earthquake.

Earthquakes

TMA is aware that understanding the location of earthquakes is also important both inland and in the ocean. The Indian Ocean is geologically a challenge and TMA are interested in ways to get seismometers to provide real-time monitoring to get forecasting capability for both tsunamis potential and volcanism to enable provision of process-based information to the aviation industry, public, private industry, and the Disaster Management Unit (DMU) in the Prime Minister’s Office. TMA would like sensors to provide observation points around the Indian Ocean and the Tanzanian coastline to facilitate immediate response.

Volcanic Ash

There are protocols for reporting volcanic ash for aviation with provision of models and data from the Toulouse VAAC to chart the development and dispersion of volcanic ash. In the case of an eruption TMA alert Toulouse VAAC who run ash dispersion models and validate the eruption with satellite data. The VAAC provide the information and advisory notes to TMA using the WMO GTS system so that information can be passed on to the aviation industry (including the Civil Aviation Authority) and the public through TMA. The GTS system is used as the primary mode of communication. The VAAC model outputs provided to TMA do not include resolution and uncertainty information. This mode of operation does not work for early-warning but to facilitate emergency response for aviation and provision of information.

During the Ol Doinyo Lengai 2007 eruption TMA followed the systematic operating procedures established by ICAO with daily updates from Toulouse VAAC and collaboration and coordination between TMA, GST and the DMU to provide information and advice on evacuation areas.

Recommendations and summary

  • TMA would like to increase their capacity in seismology and volcanology for early-warning products.
  • The Global Atmospheric Watch — Gabriel Mohr — provides some observation through air pollution monitoring. However, there are no observing systems in Tanzania. TMA is interested in equipment that might be of use to provide information on areas susceptible to earthquake and volcanic activity.
  • TMA is in need of a dispersion model for monitoring volcanic ash and for any early-warning of ash and associated volcanic gases.
  • Information exchange on the status of volcanic activity between TMA and Comoros Islands is needed.
  • Routine information exchange on seismic and volcanic activity between GST and TMA and international collaborators is needed to develop a comprehensive observing system in Tanzania.
  • TMA is expecting an MoU with GST to provide a 24/7 system for observation and early warning of earthquakes and volcanic activity.
  • TMA requires an enhanced communication infrastructure with seismic and volcanic observation points to establish a monitoring centre between TMA and other early-warning components (TMA, DMU, Media and Community at risk) in order to provide information in real-time.