SOUTH ASIAN CLIMATE NEWS

Many thanks to the several contributors to this issue. New contributions are welcome. Please send in yours by July, 2004 to make it to the next issue of this newsletter.

Upgrading of Sri Lanka Department of Meteorology

In a significant advance for meteorology in Sri Lanka, the cadre of meteorologists of the department has been expanded by eight. The ranks of the department of meteorology now consist of a Director General, two Directors and five Deputy Directors. Mr. G.H.P. Dharmaratne assumed duties as the Director-General with Mr. P.M. Jayatillake Banda and Mr. K.R. Abeysinghe serve as Directors. Meteorologists G.B. Samarasinghe, S.H. Kariyawasam, E.S. Silva and L. Chandrapala serve as Deputy Directors. A fifth Deputy Director is appointed from the Sri Lanka Administrative Services. An enhancement of the research programs of the Department is planned.

The Department of Meteorology has been brought under the Ministry of Environment and Forestry with the new government. Previously the Department was vested under the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Neutral Conditions in Pacific, Warming in Indian Ocean: IRI, May 2004

The International Research Institute for Climate Prediction (IRI) issues monthly summaries about the current state of El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO), and the consensus of models that forecast ENSO developments for the coming 6 months. 

Overall conditions in the tropical Pacific remain near-neutral. Based on the latest observations and forecasts, it is likely that near-neutral but slightly warmer than average conditions will prevail through the rest of 2004. 

IRI Climate Information Digest for May, shows that the above-average temperatures remained across much of the Indian Ocean and increased in magnitude south of Madagascar and near the Maritime Continent.

Climate Update for South Asia

During the period from February to April, South Asia, there were droughts in Pakistan and Afghanistan particularly in the Northern regions and in Sri Lanka.
During April, there was increased rainfall over Maldives but drought persisted in Sri Lanka, however since, it is been raining as is seasonable in May.

The temperature in the Southern half of South Asia has been seasonable from February to April. However, the Northern half was subjected to seasonal averages which were 1-3 degrees C above normal.

The precipitation forecasts from IRI point to a seasonable tendency of rainfall in South Asia for the period from June to August. The Maldives and Lakshadweep Islands will have a wet tendency during this season.

The temperature forecasts point to a tendency towards continued warming through South Asia with the warming likely to be greater in the Western part of the subcontinent extending from Maldives to Afghanistan.

Asian Fluid Mechanics Congress in Sri Lanka.

Fluid Mechanics underlies the sciences of meteorology, oceanography and hydrology. In May 2004, the tenth Asian Fluid Mechanics Congress (ACFMX) was held at Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. This sequence of congresses started in Bangalore, India pioneered by a few Asian fluid mechanists has sustained itself over ten biennale congresses over a period of a quarter century.

The last congress was successfully conducted in Sri Lanka in May 2004. The congress was well organized by the local organizing committee chaired by Prof. S. Sivasegeram who is also a member of the Asian Fluid Mechanics Congress. About 170 registered participants attended.

The recent congress highlighted the state of advance of fluid mechanics in Asia. It also included contributions from North America, Australia and Europe, primarily of expatriate Asians. There were participants from 19 countries. There were 35 students. The largest contingents of presenters were from India and Japan (29 each). China and USA (13), Iran (11), Australia (12) had mid-size contingents while Singapore (7), UK (5), Korea (6) had smaller contingents. Bangladesh, Pakistan, Thailand, Taiwan, Estonia, Russia had smaller contingents of presenters from 1-4.

The achievement of these sequences of congresses has been to successfully forge a community of fluid dynamicists in Asia. The robust development of fluid mechanics in the larger Asian countries was quite evident.

The numbers from the smaller and less advanced Asian countries were disproportionately small. Asia is of course a diverse continent home to about 60% of humanity. The countries span a large spectrum in terms of technological, research and educational advance. Even within the larger Asian countries, there could be difficulties in fostering fluid mechanics away from the metropolitan centres. Thus while the state of health of Asian Fluid Mechanics seems robust, there are disparities within Asia as to the development of the science.

The Asian Fluid Mechanics Committee decided to hold its 11th Congress in Malaysia in May/June 2006.

Update on Sri Lanka Meteorological Observatory Take Over

The action of this network over the take over of the land still goes on. The campaign has managed to publicize the disregard of environmental data in Sri Lanka and has brought strong statements by NASTEC, SLAAS, EFL and several climate scientists with significant coverage in the press. In addition, the Ombudsman has investigated the matter and inquiries have been requested by both the President's Office and Prime Minister's Office. This campaign should at least prevent further acquisition of the remaining part of the Observatory and the construction of large structures in the acquired land. It has sensitized all concerned regarding the pivotal nature of environmental data.

Update on Sri Lanka Meteorological Observatory Take Over

Ms. Rekha Nianthi, Lecturer, Department of Geography, University of Peradeniya has authoured a volume on global warming and climate change in Sinhala. As pointed out by Prof. Madduma Bandara and Prof. Anoja Wickremasinghe of has contributed to a shortfall in the Sinhala literuature. Ms. Nianthi covers the Global Warming and Climate Change in the first part of the text and covers Climate Change in Sri Lanka in the second half. She provides descriptions of the major topical issues at a global scale and provides a survey of the climate change related literature in Sri Lanka that shall serve as entry for researchers into this field.

In addition, to her survey of the evidence of climate change and of its impacts, she describes the mitigation and adaptation possibilities by major sectors. This is a valuable survey of the field in general in a Sri Lankan context.

The book is 201 pages long and is printed by Dharshana Printers, Peradeniya Road, Kandy. ISBN 955-98134-0-4, Publication 2003. Price: Rs. 250/=. The authours email address is listed as bnishanthi@yahoo.com

Call for Applications for START Young Scientist of the Year

The International START Secretariat is soliciting nominations/applications for the CY 2004 START Young Scientist Awards. These awards recognize the research accomplishments of outstanding young scientists from developing countries in Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Mediterranean. Nominations must be for young scientists who have published a paper in an established peer-reviewed journal (preferably in English). In keeping with STARTâ€s mission of conducting research on regional aspects of global change, the paper must be on an aspect of global change in the context of the research projects of STARTs program sponsor, the Earth System Science Partnership. Candidates must be 40 years of age or younger as of the application deadline on Friday 23 July 2004.

International Statistical Conference, Post Graduate Institute of Science, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.

December 28-31, 2004, Post-Graduate Institute of Science, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.

The primary purpose of the conference is to bring together statisticians from developed and developing countries to present their latest research findings in statistics and to interact and exchange ideas. It is hoped that such a forum will initiate fruitful interaction among all participants and stimulate research. It is expected that this venture will ultimately modernize the educational curricula for Sri Lankan students and will generate new opportunities for researchers. That is the futuristic view the theme for this conference.

Further Information at http://www.pgis.lk

nternational Conference on Sustainable Water Resources Management in the Changing Environment of the Asian Monsoon Region.

Organized by the United Nations University, November 17-19, 2004.
Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall, Colombo, Sri Lanka

The objective of this conference is to bring together practitioners and researchers in the water cycle in the Asian monsoon region and to pay particular attention to climatic change such as through the Asian brown cloud and in the use of information technologies.

Deadlines for abstracts: over but submissions may be still accepted
Deadlines for full paper: July 15, 2004

Email: WRMinCE@hq.unu.edu
Web: http://www.hq.unu.edu/conf/wrm/

4th International Mechanical Engineering Conference

Venue: Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka. Dates: 29-31 December 2004
Email: ieb@bangala.net, sadrul@me.buet.ac.bd

Abstracts of no more than 500 words are invited on all topics of mechanical engineering – please contact organizers for more details.

More Infromation:
Engr. Shaikh Al Amin
Secretary, Mechanical Engineering Division, Institution of Engineers,
Ramna, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh.

Email: ieb@bangala.net
Fax: 880 29562447

Deadlines: 15 Oct. 2004 Submission of abstract
1 Nov. 2004 Notification of acceptance
1 Dec 2004 Submission of full papers.

Conference on Geo-Informatics, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.

Venue: Post-Graduate Institute of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya.
Dates: 29-31 December 2004
Email: ieb@bangala.net, sadrul@me.buet.ac.bd
Web: http://www.pgia.ac.lk/GISNatSym/NationalSymposium.htm

With the aims of contributing, promoting and assisting furtherance of research for the development of Geo-Informatics, GIS-SL invites professionals, researchers, academia and other interested parties, who are working in Geo-Informatics related disciplines to come to a common forum at our First National Symposium on Geo-Informatics.

The major themes covered by the symposium will be: GIS, Remote Sensing, GPS , Photogrammetry, Cartography, Surveying, Spatial Statistics
Last Date for Submission of full paper - 30th June, 2004.
Dr. Ranjith Premalal De Silva,
Symposium Coordinator,
Department of Agricultural Engineering,
Faculty of Agriculture,
University of Peradeniya,
Peradeniya.
Email: rpdesilva@pdn.ac.lk

Annual Congress of the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science

60th Annual Session of the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science will be held from 06th to 10th December 2004, at the SLAAS Head Office in Colombo - 7.
Deadline for submission of abstracts: June 15, 2004.
Further Information
Telephone +94-11-2691681
Email: slaas@itmin.com http://www.nsf.ac.lk/slaas/

RFP from the APN

The Asia Pacific Network is calling for project proposals that addresses global change in the Asia Pacific countries. Most South Asian countries except the smaller ones belong to this network. The average grants for USD $42,000. Proposals must have a three country partnership with two of them being from poorer countries. Deadline for submission of optional preproposals: June 15, 2004 Japanese time.

Further Information http://www.apn.gr.jp/callforproposals/cfp.html
Contact: Dr. Linda STEVENSON
Email: lstevenson@apn.gr.jp
APN Secretariat,
5th Floor, IHD Centre Building,
1-5-1 Wakinohama Kaigan Dori,
Chuo-ku, Kobe 651-0073,JAPAN, Tel: +81-78-230-8017, Fax: +81-78-230-8018