Minister Flavien Joubert visits the Seychelles Meteorological Authority

Minister Flavien Joubert visits SMA

On Monday 23rd November, 2020 the new minister for Agriculture, Climate Change and Environment, Mr Flavien Joubert paid an official visit at the Seychelles Meteorological Authority at Pointe Larue. The aim of his visit was to familiarize himself with the work of the Authority.
On his arrival Minister Joubert was met by the Chief Executive Officer, Mr Vincent Amelie, the chairperson of the board, Mr Gerard Hoareau and the Principal Secretary for Climate change, Mr Wills Agricole, who is also a member of the board. He then met with the staff of the management team in the conference room where the CEO gave a brief presentation and outlined the structure of the Authority; the human resource capacity and the budget, the successes, the plans and targets and also the challenges.

From his presentation the CEO highlighted the following target points:

• To be ISO certified for the aviation sector next year
• Enhance the regional/international cooperation with our international partners
• Plans to localize all posts within the next ten years; at least to have two students going for training every year
• Increase the observation network and to acquire a weather radar to improve the Early Warning System
• Implement the Cost Recovery Programme so that we can self-fund some projects and trainings
• Financing of the main Headquarters at Ile Soleil

The main challenges highlighted were financial resources and to get the youth engaged to take Meteorology as a career though we have started an outreach activity in the schools.
The chairperson of the board informed the Minister that the Authority has the full support of the board to fulfill its plans and targets. After the presentation, Minister Joubert toured the main office where he visited the new studio and saw the new audio-visual equipment that was acquired two years ago, the Operations section where he got an overview of the Automated Weather Observing System (AWOS). The Avimet- AWOS is a state-of-the-art system, which confirms to the weather requirements of both the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and WMO. Thus, provides for continuous, real-time weather reports, fulfilling the needs of different end users of the aviation industry.

The Avimet- AWOS system was considered by the SMA for adoption in the year 2015 -2016, at a time when the office was seriously considering the options of re-engineering its internal operational processes; so as to be more efficient, and in doing so be in conformity with pressing ICAO and WMO standards. The implementation of the Avimet -AWOS system during the year 2016 -2018 was made possible by the financial and technical support of the Seychelles Civil Aviation Authority (SCAA); our main provider for Aviation Met products. The different components of the Avimet AWOS system are installed at strategic location along the runway of the Seychelles International Airport, thus providing in real-time, the required weather parameters to support decision making, in the safe landing, take-off and maneuvering of aircrafts. The system became operational in December 2017

Whilst visiting the Server room of SMA, the Minister was briefed on the existing core ICT infrastructure, which is the backbone for data acquisition, processing and dissemination to both local and foreign partners. Notably the Automatic Message Switching System (AMSS), the Automated Weather Observing System (AWOS), and satellite data acquisition system, which supports decision making for forecasting in near real-time via dedicated Decision Support System. He then proceeded to the Rawinsonde Station where he could see a demonstration of the procedures involved in launching a weather balloon. He then had the honor of launching the balloon. The weather balloon is being financed by the UK Met Office.

Minister Joubert expressed his appreciation for all the hard work being done by all the staff and also for their devotion and commitment. Though he recognized that the expatriates were doing a good job and was helping the Authority to meet its target of being ISO certified, he also reiterated the need to localize those posts as the expatriates represented almost two thirds of the forecasters. He also underlined the need to be more visible to the public as most people are not aware of the work being done. He encouraged us to make use of the studio and other media platforms to increase awareness of our activities and to continue the outreach activities to attract the youth to take meteorology as a career. Minister Joubert reassured us that although the country is facing an economic crisis, he will do his utmost to seek scholarships so we can fulfill our plan to localize all posts within the next ten years.