Welcome to the Australian Meteorological Association Inc.
Current meeting location continues to be at St Saviour’s Anglican Church, Glen Osmond.
For several years prior to COVID, the AMetA bi-monthly meetings were held in a conference room at the Bureau of Meteorology offices in downtown Adelaide. All meetings were suspended during the first year of COVID, and since February 2021 the meetings have resumed in alternative locations, while the Committee struggles to find a suitable long-term option. Recent meetings have all been held at St Saviour’s Anglican Church, cnr of Portrush Rd and Pridmore Rd, Glen Osmond.
Special General Meeting
7 March 2023
A Special General Meeting of AMetA members was held on Tuesday 7th March 2023. About half of our registered members were present, which constituted a quorum for this Special General Meeting. These members were asked to vote on the following question:
“Should the AMetA wind up by the next AGM?”
After some discussion, the vote was taken. All members present agreed that AMetA should wind up at the forthcoming Annual General Meeting (August 2023).
A fuller account of the situation leading up to the wind up of the association will be documented soon.
Please note that there will be time for another three regular AMetA meetings, with interesting speakers organised to present to us, before the ultimate wind up – details soon.
AMetA Meeting 7 March 2023
The evening commenced as a regular AMetA meeting, after which our members remained to conduct a Special General Meeting, as described above.
Speaker to the regular meeting:
The Australian Meteorological Association welcomed back a popular speaker to help us understand current thinking on climate change. At this meeting Darren Ray reviewed the past year, explaining the major climate drivers and the weather events that resulted. He then gave us insights into the latest in climate change science, and a glimpse of the year ahead.
After 17 years as a meteorologist and climatologist with the Bureau of Meteorology, Darren is currently undertaking a PhD in paleoclimate studies and also consulting privately as a seasonal forecaster.
Previous Meeting 18th Oct ’22
Earlier Meeting 21st June ’22
The evening’s talk was titled ‘Weather information for South Australian Agriculture’ by Warwick Grace.
A relatively small audience was most attentive as Warwick outlined the current status of the Mid-north and Riverland /Mallee Mesonet projects. Plans for further expansion south of Adelaide were also discussed. A lively Q&A session followed.
Summary: A recently established network of Automatic Weather Stations in South Australia’s Mid-north and the Riverland and Mallee provides information relevant to agriculture and regional requirements. The stations are of high quality and adhere to Bureau of Meteorology protocols. Currently the network comprises over 70 stations and will extend to the Limestone Coast region with another 40 to 50 stations later this year. Depending on the topographic and landscape complexity, the stations are typically 15 to 25 km apart.
The primary purpose is to provide guidance to eliminate off-target spray drift of herbicides and pesticides. No other networks in Australia provide the relevant information. As might be expected, there are many additional benefits – such as fire danger ratings, rainfall for localised flooding, insurance evidence, and evapotranspiration.
Participants were shown how to access the data using their smart phone. Full access is by subscription, however, common parameters like wind and temperature are freely available.
Bio: Warwick Grace was a meteorologist for 30 years in the Bureau of Meteorology, Flinders University and RAAF. He has worked in general forecasting, and research into prediction of fogs, seabreezes, air pollution, thunderstorms and seasonal temperature. Currently he is a part of COtL (Conditions Over the Landscape) which operates the COtL Mesonet (https://cotl.com.au/ ). He has a doctorate in meteorology specializing in wind flow over topographic obstacles.
Meeting 19th April ’22
“Impacts of Boundary Layer Turbulence on Heliostats in Solar Thermal Plants“
Dr Matthew Emes, Adelaide University
Matthew presented to AMETA on heliostat1 aerodynamic wind loads and atmospheric turbulence physical modelling techniques they apply in a large wind tunnel at the University of Adelaide. They recently completed installation of a 12-metre height lattice tower with streamwise and spanwise arrays of 3-metre masts (including 4 tripod masts contributed by COtL), and commissioning of 14 ultrasonic anemometers (3 of which were contributed by COtL), 9 cup anemometers and load sensors on a full- scale heliostat model in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer Research Facility (ABLRF) at the University of Adelaide Roseworthy campus. The goal is to investigate the discrepancies between the heliostat wind loads in wind tunnel and full-scale field environments. The facility provides increased precision and resolution of near-surface turbulence data in the lowest 10 metres of the ABL, with high-frequency measurements of the intensities and length scales of horizontal and vertical turbulence. Characterisation of gust wind events and verification of heliostat wind load correlations with atmospheric turbulence parameters are crucial to further develop and refine heliostat design wind load predictions and guidelines. The ABLRF is a multi-disciplinary research facility with application in wind farm design, heliostat and PV wind load study, dust dispersion and inversion layer research.
https://sciences.adelaide.edu.au/intranet/news/list/2022/05/24/milestone-reached-in-installation-of-ablrf-at-roseworthy
https://www.adelaide.edu.au/cet/news/list/2022/05/20/milestone-reached-for-atmospheric-boundary-layer-research-facility
Dr Matthew Emes
Research Associate
School of Mechanical Engineering
The University of Adelaide SA 5005
Australia
Phone: +61 8 8313 7185
Mobile: +61 4 3277 1245
Email: matthew.emes@adelaide.edu.au
Website: https://researchers.adelaide.edu.au/profile/matthew.emes LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/matthew-emes-71002b126
Footnote:
- Heliostat mirrors, which are used to concentrate solar radiation in solar thermal plants, are small-scale, thin-walled structures which can be significantly impacted by turbulence generated in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL). The characteristics of such flimsy structures are not considered in conventional building design codes. See Wikipedia for background on heliostats and solar thermal plants.
Monana Publications
Since its creation some 53 years ago, AMetA has produced a regular series of newsletters called Monana. The purpose of these has been to keep members informed on matters of general meteorological interest and to record an outline of talks presented to our meetings. As an example, the October 2021 issue of Monana can be viewed HERE.
To maintain virtual contact with our members during our COVID hibernation, we began producing monthly newsletters, alternating between the traditional Monana series and a new series which is mainly directed at people with an interest in personal weather station (PWS) and kindred issues. Both series of newsletters have been made visible in the Members Area of this website (Visitors Welcome!). The March 2021 issue of the PWS newsletter can be viewed HERE
Historical weather update
An item of great interest to AMetA members was presented on page 3 of The Advertiser on Thursday 9th July 2020. It was written by Miles Kemp – read a sample below.
“The discovery of an extensive 150-year-old diary has filled a key gap in Adelaide’s colonial weather history and will (complete) one of the longest continual records in the Southern Hemisphere. The diary contains crucial weather details from 1843 to 1856, including rainfall, temperatures, cloud types and even barometric pressure, meticulously recorded in longhand.
AMetA project manager Mac Benoy said the discovery was part of a 15-year search by local volunteers to find colonial Adelaide’s missing weather records.”
A comprehensive explanation of how this information is being exploited is available on pages 2-7 of the October 2020 AMetA Newsletter (Monana), which may be viewed HERE.
* * * UPDATE * * * At the April 2021 AMetA Meeting, Mac Benoy gave a presentation entitled “Preserving our Historical Record” to a small but enthralled audience. Mac concentrated on SA Regional Office National Weather Folios from 1879-1957, relating his story to the technological advances taking place during the early days of SA white settlement.
Slides used in this talk may be viewed HERE. Mac intended to add some text to flesh out the slides, although the pictures are probably quite self explanatory. In the meantime it might be helpful to have first read the “comprehensive explanation” referred to in the paragraph above. PLEASE NOTE: The slides file is a fairly large (about 35MB) so it might be a bit challenging for older devices! Also note that the slides reside on the Dropbox cloud so you probably need to have Dropbox installed on your device.