WMO Full Form
What is the full form of WMO?
WMO is an abbreviation for the World Meteorological Organization. It is a specific organisation inside the United Nations, an intergovernmental body with 191 member states and territories. Let's explore more about WMO in this article.
World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is a United Nations specialised organisation charged with encouraging worldwide collaboration in atmospheric research, climatology, hydrology, and geophysics.
The WMO, which consists of 193 states and territories, promotes the open exchange of information, data, and research amongst its members' respective meteorological and hydrological institutes.
The World Meteorological Organization, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, is governed by the World Meteorological Congress, which is made up of member countries and sets policies and goals every four years. The Congress is led by an Executive Council that reports to the President, who is currently Gerhard Adrian of Germany.
- What is the full form of WMO?
- World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
- History of WMO
- Hierarchy in WMO
- Major functions of WMO
- Meteorological codes for WMO
History of WMO
The World Meteorological Organization evolved from the International Meteorological Organization, a voluntary organisation created in 1873 to facilitate the exchange of weather data and research. Proposals to restructure the IMO's status and structure resulted in the 1947 World Meteorological Convention, which legally established the World Meteorological Organization. On March 23, 1950, the Convention came into effect, and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) started running as an intergovernmental body within the UN system the following year.
Hierarchy in WMO
The World Meteorological Organization's hierarchy is as follows:
The highest body that decides the organisation's policies is the World Meteorological Congress. Every nation that is a member of the organisation has a representative. In order to choose the president and vice president of the WMO, Congress typically convenes every four years. The individuals who would make up the executive council are also chosen by the world meteorological Congress. Congress also appoints the secretary general of their choice.
The Congress's decisions are usually carried out or executed by the executive council that they have appointed.
The WMO employs a secretariat style of working. This institution employs 200 individuals, who are led by the secretary general, who is appointed by Congress. The secretary-general can serve a two or four-year tenure in charge.
Major functions of WMO
The purpose of WMO's work is to offer the Member States technological and scientific systems for services and information related to weather, climate, and water. The following list includes some of the main goals of the WMO:
Improve and promote the development and upkeep of systems for the quick exchange of weather and meteorological data.
Supporting the standardised recording of observations pertaining to weather and meteorology.
Increase the use of meteorology in areas such as shipping, agriculture, and water management.
Encourage cooperation between hydrological and meteorological services and hydrological activities.
Promote research and training initiatives in meteorology and related fields.
Participate in the development of water, weather, and climate policies on a global and national scale.
Meteorological codes for WMO
The WHO is responsible for maintaining a number of codes pertaining to meteorological, oceanographic, and hydrological data. These programmes are made to be easily portable, extensible, and universal so that every member may understand and follow them. This is done to make meteorological observations more consistent.
These codes are used to keep track of the data and give everyone in the company clarity. Each of them has access to it and can see the modifications. For instance, based on the reports of these codes, 2016 was among the hottest years ever.
Some of the codes are as follows:-
SYNOP – It is the code for submitting weather reports. These reports are delivered every six hours.
CLIMAT- This code is used to report climatic conditions based on observations made of the land's surface by meteorologists.
TEMP – It is the code used for weather reporting, but at higher levels in the atmosphere.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
As a specialised agency of the UN, WMO is committed to promoting global coordination and cooperation in matters relating to the state and behaviour of the Earth's atmosphere, its interactions with land and oceans, the weather and climate they produce, and the distribution of water resources that results from these interactions.
Territories that run their own meteorological services may join the WMO as members in addition to sovereign governments. Any of the 45 states and 30 territories that signed the convention at the Washington meeting in 1947 are eligible to join, as are any UN members that operate a meteorological service. Upon ratifying or adhering to the convention, any of these instantly joins the WMO. Upon approval by two-thirds of the WMO membership, any additional state, territory, or group of territories that maintains its own meteorological services may be eligible for membership. There were 185 members of the WMO as of July 1, 2001.
India has been a WMO member since 1949. The Director-General of Meteorology (DGM) of the IMD (Indian Meteorological Department) is India's permanent representative of the organisation.
The National Meteorological and Hydrological Services of WMO's Members, who own and operate the systems for gathering, processing, and analysing data from tens of thousands of observation systems, including satellites and ships, carry out this mission.
WMO publishes statements on the status of the global climate on annual, five-year, and decadal scales. These statements provide a historical perspective on the variability and patterns of the climate, particularly surface temperatures that have happened since the 19th century, and they describe extreme weather and climatic events in the regional context. Additionally, WMO collaborates with National Meteorological and Hydrological Services to create software and tools for detecting climate change and computing indices that accurately reflect regional climate trends.
In order to present a more accurate image of the state of the world, delegates and experts collaborate on a variety of programmes, exchanging information, research, data, and technology. They converse on strategies to find and apply improvements and exchange experiences.