Julie Fletcher Manager Marine Observations, NZ Chair, VOS Panel PMO-III, March 2006, Hamburg, Germany. Ship Inspections

PMO-III, March 2006, Hamburg. 2  Making the best inspections  Improving inspections of Foreign VOS  Differences in National Practices  Generic Foreign VOS Inspection Form Ship Inspections - Outline Aim: To get all PMOs conversant with the available VOS Monitoring Tools and differing national practices so they can carry out the most effective Inspection Visits

PMO-III, March 2006, Hamburg. 3 Making the Best Inspections  Being prepared is the key to making a good inspection Identify the ship? Is it reporting? Use monitoring tools to check Ob quality Date of last inspection, problems since?  Having knowledge of ship to be inspected National VOS Foreign VOS To visit a ship unprepared means the opportunity to provide feedback on Obs and improve reporting practices is lost

PMO-III, March 2006, Hamburg. 4 Preparing for Inspection

PMO-III, March 2006, Hamburg. 5 Preparing for Inspection

PMO-III, March 2006, Hamburg. 6 Preparing for Inspection

PMO-III, March 2006, Hamburg. 7 Preparing for Inspection

PMO-III, March 2006, Hamburg. 8  PMOs know inspection process on their national VOS do it regularly know the instrumentation know the NMS documentation requirements  But less familiar with Foreign VOS, and need to: use Pub 47 to identify country of recruitment know the procedures & instrumentation of that country document the inspection visit advise VOS FP in country of recruitment of inspection details Inspections of Foreign VOS

PMO-III, March 2006, Hamburg. 9  Individual countries have differing practices in: instrumentation paper and electronic logbooks reporting practices - designated areas and times to report  PMOs need to be familiar with these practices to do a good inspection, i.e. know the barometer setting etc  SOT Task Team on Instrument Standards to document national instrument practices: August 05, request to VOS FPs to provide details of barometer setting on VOS ships Different National Practices

PMO-III, March 2006, Hamburg. 10 Barometer Types & Settings

PMO-III, March 2006, Hamburg. 11 Types & Settings

PMO-III, March 2006, Hamburg. 12 Types & Settings

PMO-III, March 2006, Hamburg. 13 Using the Information  Knowing the Foreign VOS barometer type and setting allows PMO to make an accurate barometer comparison and inform the observer of the correct procedure for obtaining MSL for the OB.  For example, a UKVOS precision aneroid outputs station level pressure and a correction for barometer height above sea level must be applied from a Correction Table to obtain MSL for the OB

PMO-III, March 2006, Hamburg. 14 Using the Information (2)  Knowing the Foreign VOS barometer type and setting means PMO will know how the electronic logbook software should be configured eg. TurboWin.  For example a UKVOS precision aneroid outputs station level pressure so the TurboWin barometer screen must read “NO” to question ‘barometer reading indicates pressure at mean sea level’. TurboWin will then add the correction for height to sea level.

PMO-III, March 2006, Hamburg. 15 TW Configuration details  Australia developed a TurboWin Configuration sheet which is now used by Australia & NZ PMOs  The sheet records details of the station settings entered when TurboWin is set up  A copy is left on board ship, so same values can be entered if TurboWin has to be reinstalled, eg after a computer crash  Use of this sheet ensures consistency in the metadata and makes it easy for a ship to set up TW again TurboWin Configuration sheet

PMO-III, March 2006, Hamburg. 16 Foreign VOS Inspection  Request received from agent for met supplies for MV STATENDAM  Ship identified from MeteoFrance VOS monitoring site as KNMI VOS  Lots of recent Obs filed for PHSG  MeteoFrance monitoring stats showed AP 2.5 to 3.0 hPa high  Visit made 14 Feb Supplies issued, thanked observers for Obs  Advised MSL pressure was too high, located reason for error

PMO-III, March 2006, Hamburg. 17 Preparing for Inspection MV Statendam pressure plot

PMO-III, March 2006, Hamburg. 18 Preparing for Inspection MV Statendam pressure errors

PMO-III, March 2006, Hamburg. 19 Foreign VOS Inspection (2)  MV Statendam has a Fuess Aneriod barometer with a correction label ‘ Nil to MSL’  A comparison with PMO Transfer Standard (corrected to MSL) confirmed Fuess MSL was accurate  The observers were reading the Fuess Aneroid  So why are the Obs pressures 2 to 3 hPa high?  Asked observer what they do with the reading  It is input to the TurboWin programme  TurboWin barometer screen was set to ‘NO’ so TW was adding correction to MSL to a reading that was MSL, hence the reason for the high pressure readings!

PMO-III, March 2006, Hamburg. 20  Statendam Inspection was successful because: Ship got supplies needed for programme Ship was thanked for the Obs Visit identified and resolved problem causing the high APs  If PMO had not looked at the Monitoring Stats as part of pre-inspection preparation, the AP problem would not have been identified and thus the opportunity to fix it lost  PMO reported inspection outcome to KNMI. KNMI advised ship now under US VOS programme Successful Inspection Outcome

PMO-III, March 2006, Hamburg. 21 Generic Inspection Form  Inspection visits to Foreign VOS should be reported back to Country of Recruitment  This allows the country to update ship details, metadata etc  A Generic Inspection Form for Foreign VOS is proposed  This form could be downloaded from VOS website, completed and sent by to VOS FP in Country of Recruitment  Feedback on format of Generic Inspection Form is sought from PMOsGeneric Inspection Form

PMO-III, March 2006, Hamburg. 22 Actions required  Request PMO/NMS to provide details of VOS Barometer Settings for publication on web  Urge PMOs to become familiar with practices and instrumentation on Foreign VOS  Urge PMOs to use the excellent VOS monitoring tools, provided by UKMO & Meteo France in visit preparation  Request feedback on proposed Generic Foreign VOS Inspection Form  Post completed Form on VOS website  PMOs to use Generic Form to advise Country of Recruitment of inspections undertaken

PMO-III, March 2006, Hamburg. 23 Ship Inspections Summary  A well prepared Inspection Visit provides: useful feedback to shipboard observers is successful in detecting and correcting problems is accurately recorded so that the NMS has confidence in what has been done.  PMO Inspection Visits can have a significant impact on data quality and done well can produce significant results

PMO-III, March 2006, Hamburg. 24 Any Questions ?