By Nosa Aituamen
The Nigerian Meteorological Agency, NiMET, has procured and installed seven automatic message dissemination platforms at Abuja, Kano, Lagos, Maiduguri, Kaduna, Enugu and Port Harcourt airports.
The Director-General, NiMET, Prof. Mansur Matazu, disclosed this at the just concluded maiden edition of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, National Aviation Conference, FNAC, held in Abuja.
According to him, the equipment would further enhance safety of humans and equipment in the industry and ensure accuracy in information dissemination.
In a paper entitled, ‘Enhancing Aviation Safety For Sustainable Development: The Role of NiMET,’ Prof. Matazu added that, the same automatic message dissemination platforms would be procured for Sokoto and Katsina airports in the coming months.
He explained that the agency had also procured and installed 10 NiMet-Earth network lightening detecting and Automated Weather Observing System, AWOS, stations in Abuja, Lagos, Benin, Sokoto, Kano, Maiduguri, Ilorin, Yola, Enugu and Port Harcourt airports.
AWOS is a fully configuration airport weather system that provides continuous, real time information and reports on airport weather conditions.
“Prevention of weather occurrences is beyond human’s technological thrust, It took scientists and industry experts a great deal of effort over many years to understand the complexity of many weather phenomenons like windshear and others”.
“Early warning and detection mechanisms have proven to be the only dependable solution to the hazards of weather and climate”.
The NiMet boss appealed to stakeholders in every spheres of the economy, especially aviation to take advantage of the agency’s mobile app and website for regular information on seasonal climate predictions, maintaining that this would go a long way to save unnecessary losses.
He added that NiMet had moved from just generating forecasts to producing forecasts with implications.
“Our clients and stakeholders are not only foretold but also forewarned of likely impacts of the predicted weather and climate events.
“In aviation, weather and climate information provides a safe and safe way of executing our activities in order to minimise risks, save lives and avert losses”.
