The First Summer School of IOC Sub-Commission for the Western Pacific (WESTPAC) on the Monsoon Onset Monitoring and its Social & Ecosystem Impacts (MOMSEI) was organized in Qingdao, 25-30 July 2010, with seven trainees from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.
This Summer School was generously hosted by the First Institute of Oceanography, SOA of China with a view to improving the capacity of MOMSEI participating countries to understand the ocean’s role in the monsoon system and further facilitating the implementation of MOMSEI project. Experts from China and US were invited to give lectures covering a wide spectrum of oceanography and climate system, which includes the ocean observation, equipment technology, tropical climate dynamics and remote sensing applications. In addition, a coastal cruise was arranged by the host institute to get all trainees acquitted with CTD operations. It is believed that a series of MOMSEI Summer School will be conducted in the years to come along with the implementation of MOMSEI Project.
MOMSEI is one of pilot project of the WESTPAC’s program on the South East Asian-GOOS (SEAGOOS). It was launched in early 2009 with objectives to improve the understanding and forecasting of Asia monsoon and its multi-scale variability at a regional scale through developing and carrying out air-sea observations over the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal and analyzing the preconditioning role of ocean in the monsoon onset. The project was designed with consideration of significant role of Asia Monsoon in the agriculture and the livelihood of people in the region since it brings heavy rain for the wider Southeast Asian Basin and its neighboring countries. Accurate forecasting of the onset is therefore very important.
For more information on the progress on this project, please send email to:
Mr. Wenxi Zhu Head, UNESCO/IOC Regional Secretariat for WESTPAC (WESTPAC)
Email: w.zhu@unesco.org
Dr. Weidong Yu
Director, Lab. Ocean-Atmosphere Interaction and Climate Change First Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration, China
Email: wdyu@fio.org.cn
Dr. Somkiat Khokiattiwong
Coordinator for SEAGOOS Phuket Marine Biological Center, Department of Marine and Coastal Resources, Thailand
Email: skhokiattiwong@gmail.com