Welcome to the first edition of Pacific Update, a newsletter focusing on NIWA's work around the Pacific Rim.
NIWA hydrologists were recently in Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic of Palau, installing hydrological stations and training local staff in the installation and operation of equipment, and in data processing.
The Fiji Meteorological Service’s (FMS) climate monitoring network is being upgraded. NIWA technician Andrew Harper was recently in Viti Levu assisting with installation and commissioning of new telemetered rain gauges as part of this project.
NIWA has been working closely with the Kiribati Government for over two years, contributing to the Kiribati Adaptation Program (KAP II) initiative to plan for climate change. Our role has included assessing hazards such as drought, high intensity rainfall, extreme sea levels, and wave conditions for the islands that make up Kiribati.
NIWA climate scientists are working with Pacific Island National Meteorological Services to ‘rescue’ their climate records. Digitising data held only in paper-based records protects them from degradation. It also makes the data much more readily available for analysis, potentially contributing to a better understanding of long-term climate variation.
NIWA scientists are part of a team aiming to assess the tsunami risk in the French Territory of Wallis & Futuna. By coincidence, the team was on Futuna a week after the 29 September 2009 Tongan earthquake and tsunami and were able to view the damage first-hand.
