Program to improve forecasts, warnings and climate analyses worldwide
As part of the United Nations SOFF program, GeoSphere Austria is supporting nine countries on three continents in setting up weather monitoring networks as a basis for weather forecasts and warnings as well as climate change adaptation measures. This week, work is being carried out with Chad to set up a monitoring network that will provide long-term weather data according to international criteria and also benefit global forecasting models.
The aim of “SOFF - Systematic Observations Financing Facility” is to fill the remaining gaps in meteorological measurement networks worldwide and to ensure that these measurement networks are financed in the long term and provide data that has been collected in accordance with international standards.
The resulting improvements in weather forecasts, early warning systems and climate information services help to protect lives, livelihoods and property.
Priority in the SOFF program is given to the least developed countries. The program is one of the foundations for the United Nations' goal of ensuring that all people on earth have easy access to weather warnings by 2027.
SOFF ist eine Kooperation der Weltorganisation für Meteorologie (WMO), des United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) und des United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP).
Austria was one of the first countries to participate in the financing of the initiative and works together with nine countries on three continents in the SOFF program, represented by GeoSphere Austria: South Sudan, Chad, Djibouti, Sierra Leone, Guyana, St. Lucia, Dominica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Laos.
Chad is now the first country for which the needs analysis has been completed and with which GeoSphere Austria is beginning the investment phase, which involves implementing the projects. To this end, numerous SOFF project workshops are being held in Chad this week (27 to 31 January 2025), in which the project-relevant ministries and Chad's meteorological service (ANAM) are working with representatives of the United Nations World Food Program and the SOFF program to develop solutions.
Specifically, it is about the limitations of the meteorological measurement network identified in the needs analysis. “Only two of 33 ground weather stations in Chad currently meet the international criteria and there are no measurements in the upper air layers,” says Andreas Schaffhauser, Scientific Director General of GeoSphere Austria, ”at the end of the SOFF project, 33 ground weather stations and six radiosonde stations for the ascent of weather balloons will be in operation. Long-term maintenance and the transmission of data in accordance with international standards are also guaranteed. As the weather is connected worldwide, this work not only benefits the region, but also improves the data basis for the globally calculated forecast models.”
Fatima Goukouni Weddeye, Chad's Minister of Transport, Civil Aviation and National Meteorology, emphasizes the multiple benefits of the SOFF project for her country: “Strengthening the capacities of our meteorological service ANAM supports the strategy of the government of the Republic of Chad to provide high-quality forecasts in the country in order to be able to react to extreme weather and climate events in good time and to reduce the risks of disasters for the population and natural resources.”
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Start of implementation of the UN SOFF program in Chad in January 2025. SOFF serves to improve forecasts, warnings and climate analyses worldwide. In the foreground from right to left: Fatima Goukouni Weddeye (Chadian Minister of Transport, Civil Aviation and National Meteorology), Sarah Gordon Gibson (Country Director Chad of the UN World Food Program, WFP), Alexandre Le Cuziat (Deputy Country Director of WFP Chad). Source: GeoSphere Austria/Eder. -> Full resolution