The coronavirus pandemic risks reducing the amount and quality of weather observations and climate and atmospheric monitoring, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) has warned.
The WMO’s Global Observing System provides critical data and observations on the state of the atmosphere, oceans and land surface which inform weather analyses, forecasts and warning signals around the world.
Large parts of the observing system, such as satellite components and ground-based networks, are partly or fully automated and are expected to continue to function for several weeks.
But if restrictions to contain Covid-19 continue for more than a few weeks, the lack of repairs, maintenance and deployments “will become of increasing concern,” the WMO said in a statement.
Manual parts of the observing system have already been significantly affected by the pandemic. Commercial planes, for example, provide in-flight measurements of ambient temperature and wind patterns – an important source of information for weather prediction and climate monitoring.
The data contributes to the Aircraft Meteorological Data Relay programme (Amdar) which collects, processes and transmits the information to ground stations via satellite or radio links.
The collapse of air travel, particularly over Europe, has seen a “dramatic” decrease in the number of measurements, the WMO said.
Data from Eumetnet, a network of 31 European national meteorological services, shows the significant decline in observations provided by airlines such as EasyJet and Germanwings in the past month.
Lars Peter Riishojgaard, director of the Earth System Branch in WMO’s infrastructure department, said that as the decrease of aircraft weather observations is expected to continue, “we may expect a gradual decrease in reliability of the forecasts”.
WMO said European countries affiliated to the network are currently discussing ways to boost the short-term capabilities of other parts of their observing networks to partly mitigate the loss of aircraft observations.
In developing countries, the meteorological community still relies on surface-based weather observations that are compiled and processed manually. Over the last two weeks, WMO reported a “significant decrease” in the availability of manual observations.
WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas warned that although national meteorological and hydrological services currently continue to provide data and observations, “we are mindful of the increasing constraints on capacity and resources”.
“The impacts of climate change and growing amount of weather-related disasters continue,” he said.
“The Covid-19 pandemic poses an additional challenge, and may exacerbate multi-hazard risks at a single country level. Therefore it is essential that governments pay attention to their national early warning and weather observing capacities despite the coronavirus crisis.”
Elsewhere, the EU’s earth observation programme Copernicus is helping researchers and policy-makers monitor the atmosphere and air quality across Europe. The agency has launched a web platform to provide updated air quality information on a daily and weekly basis.
Janga la coronavirus linaweza kupunguza kiwango na ubora wa uchunguzi wa hali ya hewa na ufuatiliaji wa hali ya hewa na anga, Shirika la Hali ya Hewa Duniani (WMO) limetoa onyo. WMO inatoa data muhimu na uchunguzi juu ya hali ya anga, bahari na uso wa ardhi ambayo huelezea uchambuzi wa hali ya hewa, utabiri na ishara za onyo ulimwenguni kote. Sehemu kubwa za mfumo wa uchunguzi, kama vile vipengele vya satelaiti na mitandao ya ardhi, ni sehemu au kikamilifu automatiska na inatarajiwa kuendelea kufanya kazi kwa wiki kadhaa. "Lakini ikiwa vizuizi vya kuzuia COVID-19 zitaendelea kwa zaidi ya wiki chache, ukosefu wa ukarabati, matengenezo na kupelekwa ""utazidi kuwa wasiwasi,"" WMO ilisema katika taarifa." Sehemu za mwongozo za mfumo wa uchunguzi tayari zimeathiriwa sana na janga hilo. Ndege za kibiashara, kwa mfano, hutoa vipimo vya hewa na mifumo ya upepo wakati wa kuruka - chanzo muhimu cha habari kwa utabiri wa hali ya hewa na ufuatiliaji wa hali ya hewa. Data hii inasaidia programu ya Aircraft Meteorological Data Relay (AMDAR) ambayo hukusanya, kusindika na kusambaza habari kwa vituo vya ardhi kupitia satellite au viungo vya redio. Mshuko wa usafiri wa ndege, hasa juu ya Ulaya, umeona kupungua kwa "kubwa" katika idadi ya vipimo, WMO ilisema. Takwimu kutoka kwa Eumetnet, mtandao wa huduma 31 za hali ya hewa za kitaifa za Ulaya, zinaonyesha kupungua kwa kiasi kikubwa kwa uchunguzi uliotolewa na mashirika ya ndege kama vile EasyJet na Germanwings mwezi uliopita. "Lars Larsson, mkurugenzi wa Idara ya Mfumo wa Dunia katika Idara ya Miundombinu ya WMO, alisema: ""Kwa kuwa kupungua kwa uchunguzi wa hali ya hewa ya ndege kunatarajiwa kuendelea, tunaweza kutarajia kupungua kwa hatua kwa hatua kwa uaminifu wa utabiri." WMO inasema nchi za Ulaya zilizounganishwa na mtandao huo kwa sasa zinajadili njia za kuongeza uwezo wa muda mfupi wa sehemu zingine za mitandao yao ya uchunguzi ili kupunguza kwa sehemu upotezaji wa uchunguzi wa ndege. Katika nchi zinazoendelea, jamii ya hali ya hewa bado hutegemea uchunguzi wa hali ya hewa wa juu ambao hukusanywa na kusindika kwa mkono. Katika wiki mbili zilizopita, WMO iliripoti "kupungua kwa kiasi kikubwa" katika upatikanaji wa uchunguzi wa mwongozo. Katibu Mkuu wa WMO, Petteri Taalas, amesema huduma za hali ya hewa na maji nchini humo zinaendelea kutoa taarifa na uchunguzi, lakini bado zina matatizo ya kuongeza uwezo na rasilimali. "Madhara ya mabadiliko ya hali ya hewa na kuongezeka kwa majanga yanayohusiana na hali ya hewa yanaendelea", alisema. "Mlipuko wa COVID-19 unaweka changamoto ya ziada, na inaweza kuongeza hatari za hatari nyingi katika ngazi ya nchi moja. """ "Kwa hivyo, ni muhimu kwamba serikali zipe uangalifu kwa uwezo wao wa kitaifa wa onyo la mapema na uchunguzi wa hali ya hewa licha ya mgogoro wa coronavirus. ""Kwenye sehemu nyingine, mpango wa uchunguzi wa dunia wa EU, Copernicus, unasaidia watafiti na watunga sera kufuatilia hali ya hewa na ubora wa hewa kote Ulaya." Shirika hilo limeanzisha jukwaa la wavuti kutoa habari ya ubora wa hewa kila siku na kila wiki.