Name: Camille LOUMOUAMOU        Institution: Direction de la Météorologie

1.	What are the most important forecasting challenges for your NMS?

	To Reinforce  the capacity of  technical staff members
	To Improve the quality of weather forecasts 

2.	How many forecasters work for your national meteorology service?

Five (5)  

3.	What qualifications are needed to be a meteorologist/forecaster in your country?

	To be engineer in meteorology (Class I WMO) or equivalent, qualified in weather 
	forecast

4.	What is the current state of your observational network?  In particular what is the approximate number of  functioning:

a)	surface synoptic stations : 

Ground synoptic stations: 18 classic stations characterized by the weakness on telecommunication’s means, lake of wind network and few number of recorders and consumables.

b) climatological stations with daily rainfall measurements: 

212 rain gauge stations (rate of working is low : 15 %) 
12 climatological stations , only three (3) are operational

c) meteorological radars :

One (1) radar, reformed

5.	Are any upper air observations (radiosonde or pilot balloon) made routinely by your NMS?   If so please describe very briefly the specific sites and kinds of observations being made.  

Two (2) radiosonde stations (DIGICORA) located in Ouesso (latitude: 01°37’- longitude: 16°03’) and in Pointe Noire (latitude: 04°49- longitude:16°03’) with a reinforced program  since September 2011. The only one network of 12 HH00 GMT is passed to network of two times (00 H00 and 12 H 00 GMT).
However, these two radiosonde stations  accuse  temporarily some rupture of consumable due to customs clearance. These two (2) stations are managed by ASECNA (Agence pour la Sécurité de la navigation aérienne en Afrique et à Madagascar), a multinational agency composed of 17 African states and France.

Six (6) pilot balloon stations; 

Only three (3) (Brazzaville, Ouesso, Pointe-Noire) stations are operational and are managed par ASECNA:
Brazzaville    (Latitude: 04°15’S        Longitude:   15°15’ E) 
Pointe Noire (Latitude: 04°49'S        Longitude:   11°54' E)
Ouesso           (Latitude: 01°37'N      Longitude:    16°03'E)

The three (3) others stations, managed by the national Service are closed for lake of theodolite and/or consumables. This concerns these stations:

Dolisie : Latitude : 04°12'S  Longitude : 12°42'E  
Impfondo : Latitude : 01°37'N  Longitude : 18°04'E  
Djambala : Latitude : 02°32'S  Longitude : 14°41'E  

6.	What types of numerical model guidance and Internet products do meteorologists in your country use to make forecasts?

Numeric models and products used and received through EUMETcast diffusion system.

By Internet, we extract satellite images from European meteorological satellite           (Second Generation Meteosat), weather numeric products of Meteo France and South Africa Weather Bureau.

7.	Are there any particular improvements would you personally like to see made to your current observational network?

Improving of data collect system and meteorological telecommunication means is one of the priorities. The request of assistance had been done through the African Adaptation Project for climate change. Six (6) meteorological automatic stations are being  received during this year 2012.

8.	What kind of education is most needed by your staff?

Training in management on meteorological service, especially in mobilization resource, training on weather forecast in tropical regions.

9.	Are there separate meteorological services for different purposes in your country?  For example, does the Civil Aviation community depend on forecasts from a specialized forecast agency, or does the military have their own forecasting staff.  (This information is very important for designing possible educational activities, for example.)

ASECNA is in charge of Meteorological assistance to the international air navigation. This agency is also providing the meteorological assistance to the military aviation in our country.  
It is noted that ASECNA is managing two (2) ground meteorological stations                 ( Brazzaville and Pointe Noire), and radiosond  stations of Ouesso and Pointe Noire. 
But the meteorological watch of the airfield on the others air platforms of Congo is in charge of national meteorological service named Direction de la météorologie which is one of the department of the National Civil Aviation Agency (Agence Nationale de l’Aviation Civile (ANAC)) of Congo.


10.	 Please feel free to provide any other comments that you wish here:

We expect receiving numerical product of weather from several model.
Among others numeric products we wish to receive, but we don’t still receive yet, are the output model at 06000 and 1800 GMT at different level: (flux line, winds, divergence, temperature, humidity, etc…)
The supply of services and climatological products is also one of our priorities. There is a need of building capacity in this field in order to allow the service to reply efficiently to the users’ request, especially in the adaptation on climate change.