Doha: The sixth meeting of GCC standing committee for meteorology and climate, hosted by Civil Aviation Authority, represented by Qatar Meteorology Department, began yesterday.
In his keynote speech at the opening session, Dr Abdullah Al Hashim, Assistant Secretary-General for Human and Environmental Affairs at the GCC general secretariat, praised the role of meteorology in all walks of life and the impact of climate’s elements on all human activities.
He stressed the importance of cooperation and coordination between GCC meteorology departments to exchange information and data on weather and climate.
In a statement on the sidelines of the meeting, Ahmed Abdallah Mohamed, Director, Meteorology Department, and Qatar’s Permanent Representative to World Meteorological Organization, said the meeting discussed cooperation between meteorology departments, network of seismic stations and weather radars projects in the GCC countries to track the weather in all member states in terms of clouds’ movement and weather changes.
He also stressed the need for coordination of positions with regard to the next election of World Meteorological Congress in Geneva, and said we intend to set up mechanisms to boost efforts.
He said the national and international earthquake monitoring centre began its experimental period, noting that monitoring has proven the initial quality of the extracted data.
He said the centre will be officially opened in November, under the auspices of the Chairman of Qatar Civil Aviation Authority, Abdul Aziz Mohamed Al Nuaimi.
Qatar’s working paper at the meeting called for a mechanism to boost coordination between GCC countries, he said, adding a mechanism to link monitoring stations will start between Oman and Qatar to enable each side see the readings of the other party. The meeting also discussed aeronautical and meteorological services. QNA
