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This is one of four
new Doppler weather radars in the English-speaking Caribbean
as part of a 13.2 million Euro (approx TT$ 115
million) Project being implemented by the Caribbean
Meteorological Organization. Construction of the 20-metre
reinforced concrete tower at Tabaquite started in 2007 and
was completed early in 2008, following which the weather
radar was installed and tested. Two of the three other
radars have also been installed. The radar in Barbados is
also ready for commissioning, the radar in Belize has been
installed and is under test, while the radar in Guy ana
is scheduled to be installed and tested in January 2009.
Mr Tyrone Sutherland,
Coordinating Director of the CMO, located in Port of Spain,
said that “We completed the building at Brasso Venado on
schedule in February, then after installing the radar
itself, we went through several months of intensive testing
– not without problems – before we certified that the radar
is ready for full operations. This powerful new radar,
built in Germany, provides continuous radar surveillance of
all weather at various ranges to a distance of 400
kilometres (250 miles) in all directions.” He indicated
that “Even during the test period, the Meteorological
Service at Piarco has been using the information provided,
although arrangements for its official hand-over to the
Government of Trinidad and Tobago are still to be
finalized.”
Mr Glendell De Souza,
Science and Technology Officer at the CMO, himself a former
Senior Meteorologist with the Trinidad & Tobago Met.
Service, said that
“the new radars will enable weather
forecasters to study and monitor weather systems as they
develop, thereby allowing Meteorologists to provide more
accurate and timely information of the type, intensity and
location of severe weather, including approaching tropical
storms and hurricanes. In fact, the
Met. Office at Piarco was able to use the radar very
effectively during the flooding events of November”.
According to Mr Sutherland, “The Government of Trinidad and
Tobago provided the CMO with the land at Brasso Venado for
the construction of the tower and the installation of the
radar after a very extensive collaborative search by
technical experts of the CMO and the Government of Trinidad
and Tobago. Now that the whole system has been completed
here in Trinidad, we will formally transfer the radar to the
Government for operation by the Meteorological Service for
the protection of the citizens of the nation and
neighbouring Caribbean States.”
Mr De Souza further stated
that
“Once we have
handed the radar over to the Government, it is expected that
the Meteorological Service will make its data, along with
the data from the others in the regional Network, available
to the public, media, Government agencies, disaster
preparedness agencies and other users in the nation and
throughout the Caribbean via the Internet. In other words,
the public and others will be able to “see” for themselves,
approaching weather on the radars.
This Caribbean Radar
Project is one of the regional activities of the Caribbean
Forum of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (CARIFORUM)
with funding provided by the European Union. The CMO, as
the Implementing Agency, provided a variety of engineering,
communication and radar systems experts to the Project,
which was designed to replace the old and obsolete weather
radars installed by the CMO in the late sixties and early
seventies. The new radars will be linked electronically
with the radars of other nations to provide almost complete
coverage of the Caribbean. |
