In 1919, Iran's first
agricultural training establishment, the Barzegaran School, was established in
the building that had previously been Fath Ali Shah's summer palace. There, a
group of French academics taught specialised meteorology classes.
Alongside the school,
a meteorology station was set up to research into temperature, humidity and
rainfall. This station did not remain in operation for very long, and gradually
fell out of existence altogether. However, the Barzegaran School, which in 1929
changed its name to the 'Ali Falahat School, over time became a better-equipped
establishment. Also in 1929, the National Economics and Transport Ministry was
established, but this establishment also underwent changes. In later years, it
was divided up into the Ministries for Agriculture, Commerce, Employment and
Art.
One of the Ministry
for Agriculture's sub-groups later separated itself and became known as the
Independent Irrigation Organisation.
This newly established
organisation in actuality was the founder of all meteorological activities in
the country. In the Second World War, due to assistance provided by the Allies,
several Meteorological Centres were set up in order to assure the safety of
Allied flights during that period. From 1941 onwards, the Ministry for
Agriculture and the Independent Irrigation Organisation worked towards
establishment of a small meteorological unit as well as a network of
meteorological stations. In 1947, in the National Aviation Office, another small
meteorological unit was established and undertook the responsibility of
administering airport station activities.
Gradually it began to
carry out meteorological activities in addition to these principal duties. The
first group of meteorologists graduated from the 'Ali Falahat School in 1948,
and it was they who managed these early airport activities.
In 1950-1951, the Air
Force, Office of National Aviation Affairs, and the Independent Irrigation
Organisation combined forces to establish the Head Office for Independent
Meteorology. On 17 February 1955, these three organisations presented a proposal
to the government that this Head Office became associated to the Ministry of
Transport. They also proposed that Professor Aqili, of the Technical College of
the University of Tehran, be its director.
However, in 1957,
before the form al passing of this proposal by the government in 1958, the
directorship of the Head Office for Meteorology was in fact given to Professor
Ganji, of the University of Tehran.
In 1956, with the
financial help of the Ministry for Planning and Budget, a centre responsible for
all meteorological activities came into existence. In the same year, one
radio-sound station, five pilot balloon stations, 29 synoptic stations, 7
agricultural stations
were set up. I n
total, there were 1 05 stations, seventy-four of which were established by the
Office of National Aviation Affairs and the Independent Office for Meteorology.
The rest of the stations were established by the Head Office for Meteorology.
Due to the establishment of these stations, seven forecasters and forty-two
observers were able to start carrying out the independent meteorological
activities of two technical studies, with help of the15,000,000 Rials financial
credit that they were given.
In the second year
after establishment, the number of these meteorological stations had increased,
so that there were 8 pilot balloon stations, 31 synoptic stations, 4 pluviometry
stations, and 70 climatology stations. At the end of 1958, at the t im e of
official sanctioning of the Head Office for Meteorology, the total number of
stations had risen to 1 radio-sound, 8 pilot balloon, 33 synoptic, 81
pluviometry and 140 climatology stations. In 1959, Iran's Head Office for
Meteorology became the one hundred and thirtieth member of the World
Meteorological Organisation, and by 1960, the number of synoptic stations had
once again risen to a number of 35. Also in 1960, stations studying the
atmosphere around Tehran and Kerman were equipped with radar and other advanced
technologies. In 1961, the Forecasting Centre was equipped with facsimile
facilities. In 1962, the second radar was set into act ion in Shiraz, followed
by the third radar being installed in Mashhad two years later. In 1965, there
were 38 synoptic stations, 172 climatology stations, and 147 pluviometry
stations.
GEOGRAPHICALFEATUR
The Islamic Republic
of Iran lies in the western part of the Iranian plateau about the north of
eastern hemisphere and the south-west of Asia. Its neighbours, consist of
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russian Federation, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan in the
north, which are around the Caspian Sea Afghanistan, and Pakistan in the east,
Turkey and Iraq, in the west. The sea frontiers of the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea
in the south relate this country to the high seas, and southern neighbouring
countries, namely Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, U.A.E. and Oman.
Iran has an area of
about 1,648,195 sq. km. and over half of that is mountainous. She has a
population of about 60 million. The country enjoys a variety of climates which
are apparently different from each other. The northern part of Iran has a
moderate weather with considerable rainfall, especially in the western part of
Gilan Province.
The climate of the
western parts is cold and humid in cold season, and in summertime dry with
moderate temperature. In southern areas, the humidity and temperature are so
high. Hot summer and moderate winter are the characteristics of these areas and
daily variation of temperature is not significant.
The eastern and south-eastern have desert climate in which there are extreme
differences in daily temperature ranges. Such wide climatic variations are the
results of the combination of various climatological elements with
climatological factors such as latitude, mountain belts and distribution of the
land and sea.
ORGANIZATIONALSTRUCTURE
New
Meteorological activities within three branches of Meteorology, Agrometeorology
and Aviation Meteorology emerged since 1919. However, General Office for
Meteorology was established in 1958 and began its operation under authority of
the Ministry of Roads and Transportation.
MAIN
OBLIGATIONS OF IRIMO
* Providing Civil
Aviation and Air Force with weather information, secure safety in their
flights and issuing continued forecasts according to the
International Civil Aviation
Organization (ICAO) standards.
* Furnishing governmental and private enterprises with meteorological data, to
be used in
infrastructural programmes of agricu1lure economy construction and
industry.
*
Providing meteorological data and weather forecasts to domestic and
International
shipping as well as transportation services.
* Providing ozone data
and chemical components of the atmosphere in response to global
need.
* Studying the
atmospheric condition and physical status of the sea for oil exploration,
fishing, port operations and sea currents
PRINC1PAL OBJECTIVES OF IRIMO
* Finding the
procedures to use meteorological data in structural planning and
programming of the country.
* Contributing to the WMO and other United Nations specialized agencies
research
Projects.
* Contributing to the
monitoring of greenhouse gases and related problems.
*
Promoting the professional knowledge of personnel to in crease their scientific
and
technical efficiency
* Training the
personnel on the latest scientific theories and familiarizing them with the
update products of technology
Modernization and Automation System in IRIMO
1- Message Switching System.
- Highly available fault resistant system
- Meteorological data messaging system
2- Integrated Forecast System
- High Speed Risc Workstation
- Integrated Meteorological system (SAT, GTS, Radar, AFTV data)
- Product dissemination
- End user remote access
3- Numerical modelling and forecasting system
4- Meteorological satellite receivers
- NOAA
- METEOSAT
- GOMS
- FY2
- MDD/SADIS
5- Office Automation and workstation networks
- Object Oriented works flow and MIS
- Main frame based Data Bank
- PC LANs
- Web Server, e-mail
6- National Communication Wide Area Network
- VSAT WAN
- X.25 Gateways
- Dialap, Leased Line. Telex, Facsimile
- Tehran RTH
RESEARCH ACTIVITIES
Meteorological and
Atmospheric Sciences Center is conducting researches in nine major approaches as
follows:
1- National Center for
Climatology (Mashhad )
2- Atmospheric Chemistry and Air Pollution Research (
Isfahan)
3- Atmospheric and Oceanographic Center ( Tehran- Bandar Anzali- Bushehr-
Chabahar)
4– Agrometeorology Research Center ( Tehran- Shiraz - Hamedan and 16 other
cities)
5- Synoptic and Dynamic Meteorology Center ( Tehran)
6- Physical Meteorology and Cloud Seeding Center (Yazd)
7- Hydrometeorological Research Center (Tabriz)
8- Aeronautical Meteorology Research Center (Tehran)
9- Atmospheric Sonding Research Center ( Tehran)
Researchers at the Scientific Centers of IRIMO
240
Researchers and University Professors Cooperating with IRIMO
115
Current Projects in Progress
231
Training Activities
The training activities in the IRIMO formed since 1948. However, ten years later
in 1958 IRIMO established the Higher Meteorological and Atmospheric Sciences
Center to fulfil the growing needs to meteorological sciences and operations in
the country.
The Center has successfully held many courses in different levels of WMO
standards and established joint cooperation with universities.
During the Tenth Session of regional Association II(Asia) in 1992, in Tehran it
was decided to establish Regional Meteorological Training Center (RMTC) in I.R.
of Iran and develop meteorological training activities within west of the Asia.
The RMTC Tehran is the sole international training body on meteorology and
atmospheric sciences in Iran which is collaborating with WMO. The Center has
conducted some courses in national levels for M.Sc. and short term courses for
different participants from all over the world, most especially Asian, South
Pacific and African Countries.
W O
R K S T A T I
O N S
LAN/ WAN/
remote access
Forecasting and warning preparation
Forecasting support application
Automatic alerting evolving severe applications
Hydrological applications
Satellite/ radar applications
Real-Time Database
(Observations,
numerical model grids, satellite imagery
product
forecasts/ warnings, radar, etc)
Dissemination
Message Recognition,
Decoding,
Quality Control
Data Input
Drifting Ship
Radio- Automatic Surface
Radar Global Satellite
National
Buoy
Sonde Weather
Station
Telecom.
Met.
Station
Systems
Operations
Center
A s c h e m a t i c o f t h e
I R I M O I n t e g r a t e d F o r e c a s t
S y s t e m
I n t e r n a t i o n a l A c t
i v i t i e s of
IRIMO
1-
Bilateral
cooperation with Meteorological Services of other countries.
2-
Multicultural collaboration with Hydrometeorological Services in
the Region, most especially littoral states of the Caspian Sea.
3-
Sponsoring in WMO activities, convening international conferences
and workshops in Iran and participation in regional as well as international
activities.
4-
Membership of IRIMO experts in specialized working groups, focal
points and technical commissions, etc….
5-
Active contribution of the Permanent Representative of the
Islamic Republic of Iran with WMO as the member of WMO Executive Council, former
elected Vice-President of WMO and former President of Regional Association
II(Asia).
6-
Holding familiarization tours for Permanent Representatives of
other countries with WMO to enhance technical management of Meteorological
Services.
