The Vanuatu Meteorology and Geo-Hazards Department (VMGD) is now using newly digitised weather and climate data to provide up-to-date and accurate climate and weather information to decision makers in key sectors.
The digitised data includes parameters such as rainfall, maximum and minimum temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, and visibility.
Most of the data digitised was taken from paper records for weather stations and is suitable for calculating long term climate trends, which require a minimum of 30 years of data to be included in computer climate models.
VanKIRAP Climatologist Neil Molosu said data digitization and quality controls contribute towards improving coverage, accuracy, and quality of climate information services (CIS) tools used by VMGD.
Malosu explained that datasets will also be used by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) for climate indices analysis.
He said almost 50,000 scans were made and digitally converted into PDF electronic format.
The files are now accessible to VMGD staff online.
Photo supplied Caption: Digitisation interns with staff of VanKIRAP in Port Vila.