Mr. Michel Jarraud, the Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), visited the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) on 26 September, 2011, in conjunction with his attendance at the 5th International Conference on Flood Management (ICFM5, held in Tokyo from 27 to 29 September) accompanied by Mr. Avinash Tyagi, the Director of WMO's Climate and Water Department.
Mr. Jarraud paid a courtesy visit to Dr. Mitsuhiko Hatori, the Director-General of JMA and Permanent Representative of Japan with WMO. They were happy to see each other again four months after their attendance at the 16th World Meteorological Congress in Geneva, and exchanged views on the collaborative relationship between JMA and WMO. Dr. Hatori briefly explained JMA's efforts to issue various warnings in relation to Typhoon Talas (T1112) and Typhoon Roke (T1115), both of which had recently brought heavy rainfall throughout Japan. Mr. Jarraud was impressed with JMA's work on multi-hazard risk reduction.
Mr. Jarraud listened to a series of explanations by experts from different departments of JMA on various matters including recent progress with its operations and action taken by the Agency in relation to the Great East Japan Earthquake. He expressed a particular interest in JMA's approach to the effective utilization of climate information as an example of action to lead the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS).
From left, Mr. Tyagi, Mr. Jarraud, Dr. Hatori and Mr. Nishide, the Director-General of the Forecast Department
At the end of his visit, Mr. Jarraud gave JMA staff a presentation on the background and future of the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS) as a priority WMO issue, and expressed high expectations for Japan's contribution to the successful establishment and implementation of the framework.
Mr. Jarraud also gave a brief speech to attendees of the Group Training Course for Reinforcement of Meteorological Services held at JMA from 20 September to 16 December, 2011, in collaboration with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). He encouraged those present to learn about recent related matters and techniques through the training course and expressed expectations that the participants would play important roles in promoting weather services in their own countries in the near future. The attendees were honored and impressed by the presentation and renewed their determination to learn.
JMA has run this meteorological training program annually for about 35 years as part of its contribution to building capacity in the meteorological services of developing countries. Organized jointly by JICA and JMA, it is designed specifically for staff from National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) and is intended to enhance expertise in a variety of fields including numerical weather prediction, satellite meteorology and climate information. The program's goals also include capacity building for the application of knowledge and techniques to support the production and delivery of meteorological and climatological information needed by disaster prevention authorities and other users. The course this year is to be held in Tokyo with eight trainees invited from Jordan, Kenya, Lao PDR, Mozambique, Myanmar, Samoa and Uganda.
