INTRODUCTION

The Hong Kong Observatory’s three main objectives are:

(1) to provide weather services to meet the public’s demand for short to medium range forecasts and warnings of hazardous weather and to provide forecasts for international aviation and shipping in accordance with the safety standards of international organizations;

(2) to provide information on local environmental radiation levels and effects and to advise the Government on countermeasures that may be necessary during nuclear emergencies;

(3) to maintain the Hong Kong time standard and to provide geophysical, oceanographic, astronomical and climatological information and consultative services to the public and private sectors.

During the financial year 2007-2008, the department’s total expenditure was $196,560,000 and the total revenue was $79,390,000. By the end of the financial year, there were altogether 270 civil servants and 21 contract staff working in the department.

The activities of the Observatory from April 2007 to

March 2008 are highlighted in the following paragraphs. HIGHLIGHTS

The Hong Kong Observatory celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2008. To commemorate the occasion, the Observatory’s Open Days on 15 and 16 March 2008 featured a special gift to the visitors showing a chronicle of the Observatory’s historical events. The “Friends of the Observatory” members and the Observatory staff participated in the 125th Anniversary Logo Design

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Hong Kong Observatory 2007 - 2008

The Hong Kong Observatory celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2008. A group photo of the staff members was taken at the Observatory Headquarters in January 2008.

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Competition. Group photographs for the staff members were also taken.

The Observatory won several awards in 2007-2008:

Merit Award in the category of “Departmental Service Enhancement” of the Civil Service Outstanding Service Award Scheme 2007;

The Secretary for the Civil Service, Miss Denise C Y Yue (left), presented the Merit Award to Observatory representatives, Sandy Song (middle) and Lee Kwok-lun

Champion in the "Specialized Service" category of

the same scheme - the LIDAR Wind Shear Alerting Service;

Second runners-up in the "Partnership Award" in the same scheme - the "Science in the Public Service" campaign jointly organised by the Observatory with various government departments;

“Science in the Public Service" partners at the award presentation ceremony

Gold Award in the Best Public Service Application category of the 2007 Hong Kong Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Award competition – the Observatory’s website which provides citizens with accurate and timely weather information, as well as education materials on

weather awareness; Yahoo! BUZZ Award 2007 in the "Government

Department" category; The "Promotion of Happy Family Award" organized

by Caritas Hong Kong and Family Movement (a Catholic family movement) to recognize the Observatory’s efforts in practicing family-friendly policies;

The "Corporate and Employee Contribution Programme Bronze Award" in the Community Chest Corporate and Employee Contribution Programme 2007/08;

The 2007/08 Community Chest "Employee Contribution Programme Certificate of Merit";

The 2007/08 Community Chest "CARE Scheme Civil Service Category Highest Per Capita Contribution Award".

The public opinion survey conducted by the

Observatory in October 2007 indicated that, on the average, members of the public considered 76.5% of the weather forecasts accurate. On a scale of 0 to 10, the public gave an average score of 7.5 to the Observatory’s overall services. PUBLIC WEATHER FORECASTING AND WARNING SERVICES New Measures for Tropical Cyclone Warning

A series of new measures in respect of tropical cyclone warning were implemented in the typhoon season in 2007. The main ones were:

Expand the reference for issuance of No. 3 and No. 8 signals to the wind speeds recorded by a network of 8 reference anemometers;

Enhance the public’s awareness of regional variation in wind speeds through media broadcasts and encourage the usage of weather information in the HKO website;

Issue an advisory message reminding the traveling public to check with airlines before departing for the airport when weather conditions might cause disruption to air traffic.

Enhanced Weather Information Service for South China Coastal Waters

To further enhance marine weather services and meet the evolving needs of fishermen, the Observatory increased the number of bulletins for Weather Information for South China Coastal Waters from 6 to 7 times a day

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starting June 2007 by adding an additional bulletin at 9:30 a.m.

Regional Temperature Forecast

A regional temperature forecast service was launched in March 2008 to provide maximum/minimum temperature forecast in various parts of Hong Kong.

Regional Temperature Forecast in Hong Kong (beta version) Public Weather Information Service

The Observatory website (www.weather.gov.hk and www.hko.gov.hk) continued to be very popular in 2007-2008. The number of page views was slightly over a billion, similar to that of last year. In 2007-2008, the Observatory further enhanced its website to include the following new information and services:

A new webpage "Weather Information for Senior Citizens";

A webpage on weather information for hiking and mountaineering designed to facilitate planning for outdoor activities, particularly, to take appropriate precautions when necessary;

A new webpage on "Weather Information for Schools" provided the latest weather warnings, weather forecasts, rainfall distribution, regional wind condition and other information relevant to school personnel, parents and students, enabling them to better plan their activities and take appropriate precautions when necessary;

To enable the public to readily obtain the most sought-after weather information, the content page of the Observatory's website took on a new design based on suggestions from the public as well as the

Friends of the Observatory. The new content page showed satellite imageries as well as regional weather information of the choice of the users, such as wind, temperature and rainfall etc.;

The lightning location information webpage was enhanced with more user-friendly geographical references and browsing functions. This would enable members of the public to identify the location of lightning more easily;

Lightning location map with more geographical references and enhanced browsing functions

A new climate change webpage serving as an one-stop information source on climate change was launched. In addition to the latest status of climate change both globally and locally in Hong Kong, it also contained resources such as related press releases and scientific reports, and suggestions on how we as individuals can help to reduce global warming;

The grass temperatures at Tai Mo Shan and King's Park Meteorological Station were added to the Observatory's "Regional Weather" webpage, in addition to the grass temperature information at Ta Kwu Ling;

New weather maps with satellite images superimposed onto isobaric charts were added to the website. These maps would help to show the close relationship between weather systems and cloud clusters and promote a better understanding of how different weather systems bring about different weather conditions;

Monthly star maps were made available on the Observatory’s website. Marked on the maps were stars normally visible to the naked eye, names of constellations and positions of planets in that month;

Maps indicating the locations of epicentres were shown on the earthquake press release web pages.

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The Observatory’s Dial-a-Weather service (187 8200) handled a total of 21 million calls in 2007-2008.

Professional meteorologists of the Observatory

produced and hosted TV weather programmes for major TV channels in the morning and evening, while Weather Service Officers of the Observatory provided the public with the latest weather situation through radio interviews every Friday to facilitate planning for the weekend.

Weather Services for other Government Departments and Special Clients

Over 340 users from 63 government departments have registered for the service of the very popular Government Weather Information Server (GOWISE).

Specialized weather services are provided to utility

companies, public transport operators, engineering contractors and information providers on a cost-recovery basis. 85 clients subscribed to the Observatory’s specialized services in 2007-2008, generating a revenue of about $1.3 million.

Observation Networks

In September 2007, the Observatory, Guangdong Meteorological Bureau (GMB), and Macao Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau (SMG) jointly opened the lightning sensor station at Huidong. The new station expands the coverage in lightning detection east of Hong Kong, thereby strengthening the ability to monitor thunderstorms approaching from the east such as those brought by the outer rainbands of tropical cyclones.

Directors of meteorological services of Macao (left), Hong Kong (2nd left) and Guangdong (2nd right) officiated at the inauguration ceremony of the new lightning detection in Huidong

The Observatory launched the "One District One

Station" initiative in 2007, with an aim to operate at least

one automatic temperature monitoring station at each of the 18 districts in Hong Kong. Two such stations were launched in 2007-2008, one in Hong Kong Park in Central & Western District and the other in the Museum of Coastal Defense in Eastern District.

The Director, Mr Lam Chiu-ying (2nd right) and guests officiating at the opening ceremony of the automatic weather station for the Central & Western District, September 2007

Guests and Acting Director, Dr M C Wong (5th right), celebrating the launch of the automatic weather station for the Eastern District, September 2007

In mid 2007, the functions of the automatic weather station at Waglan Island were enhanced by installing a new visibility measurement equipment and two new network cameras there.

The new visibility meter at Waglan Island

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With the launch of the webcams at Waglan in 2007, a total of 10 weather photos became available at the Observatory website.

Satellite Reception System

A new satellite reception system was put into operation in August 2007. The new system receives images from Japan's new Multi-functional Transport Satellite-1R. The Observatory also enhanced the satellite images on its website by extending the coverage of satellite images to encompass a larger area over the western north Pacific. All tropical cyclones mentioned in the Observatory's weather forecast bulletins could now be seen in the satellite images provided by the Observatory.

Mr Lam Chiu-ying, Director of the Hong Kong Observatory (left) and Mr Shigekazu Sato (right), Consul-General of Japan officiated at the opening ceremony for the new satellite data reception system, August 2007

AVIATION WEATHER SERVICES The 70th anniversary of the Observatory’s aviation

weather services was celebrated in 2007. Activities included a visit of Observatory staff and their family members to the Airport Meteorological Office in December, as well as an aviation weather service exhibition cum cocktail reception on 18 December to celebrate with users and partners, including the Airport Authority, Civil Aviation Department, Government Flying Services, airlines, pilots and the general aviation community.

Permanent Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development (Commerce, Industry and Tourism) Miss Yvonne Choi (4th left), Director of the Hong Kong Observatory (4th right) and representatives of the aviation community lit up a rainbow at the ceremony, December 2007

In 2007-2008, some 150,000 flight documents were provided by the Observatory for aircraft departing the Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA), an increase of more than 5% over 2006-2007. At the same time, the web-based Aviation Meteorological Information Dissemination System (AMIDS) became even more popular in 2007-2008, with the total number of access exceeding 14 million, an increase of more than 17 % from the 2006-2007 figure.

The Observatory’s windshear and turbulence alerts

maintained a high hit rate of about 90 % in the last four years.

The LIght Detection And Ranging (LIDAR) system

at the Air Traffic Control Complex (ATCX) was moved in March 2008 to the southern Fire Station, a location closer to the south runway. The laser beam of the LIDAR became better aligned with the south runway, thus enhancing the precision in monitoring windshear over the south runway. After the relocation, each runway of HKIA

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has a dedicated LIDAR for windshear detection. This "Dual LIDAR Windshear Alerting System" is the first of its kind in the world.

Uplinking wind shear alerts generated by the

LIDAR system to the aircraft cockpit – again the first of its kind in the world – became an ongoing programme at the HKIA. This was the result of the collaboration between the Observatory and the Northwest Airlines (NWA). Currently, wind shear alerts are passed to pilots in flight via air traffic controllers.

Ms Sandy Song (front left) and Mr B L Choy (front right) of the Observatory, and NWA's Chief Pilot and Meteorologist (back) in the cockpit of an NWA aircraft

The "Manual on the Quality Management System

for the Provision of Meteorological Service to International Air Navigation" written by Mr S T Chan, Observatory Scientific Officer and a consultant to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to develop the Manual, was published by ICAO. The Manual served as a timely guide to ICAO Contracting States to establish ISO 9000-compliant quality management systems, in accordance with a plan to upgrade the recommended practices to international standards in 2010. The Manual was also published by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) as the "Guide on the Quality Management System for the Provision of Meteorological Service for International Air Navigation" for weather services worldwide.

The Observatory launched an internet-based platform

to facilitate the sharing of weather observations and pilot reports within the general aviation community in Hong Kong.

Internet-based platform developed by the Observatory for the sharing of pilot reports and weather observations within the general aviation community in Hong Kong

In collaboration with the Airport Authority Hong

Kong, the Observatory commissioned a new-generation Airport Thunderstorm and Lightning Alerting System (ATLAS) in March 2008. The system was used to detect and forecast lightning activities over the HKIA to protect personnel on the ground and aircraft passengers from lightning strikes. Developed by the Observatory, ATLAS detects cloud-to-ground lightning strikes over the airport island as well as its immediate vicinity, and predicts short-term movements of these lightning strikes.

Led by the Observatory, a pilot project on

"Aviation-weather Disaster Risk Reduction" in the Asia and South-West Pacific regions was established by the Commission for Aeronautical Meteorology (CAeM) of the WMO. In this project, the Observatory set up a website dedicated to the aviation community in September 2007. It provided tropical cyclone warnings issued by weather services in China, Hong Kong-China, Japan, the Philippines and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center of USA. It also displayed numerical forecasts of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.

ICAO prescribes the standard and recommended

practices of aviation meteorological services in a publication known as “ICAO Annex 3”. The latest amendments of Annex 3 became effective in November 2007. Since these amendments would have significant impacts on aviation users, the Observatory maintained close liaison with airlines and the Civil Aviation Department to ensure that these amendments would be implemented smoothly.

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Observatory staff met with aviation users to discuss amendments to ICAO Annex 3 MARINE METEOROLOGICAL SERVICES

Weather forecasts and warnings are issued routinely by the Observatory for 10 shipping areas in the South China Sea and 7 fishing areas along the south China coast.

Staff of the Observatory visited Voluntary

Observing Ships (VOS) calling at Hong Kong and provided them with meteorological equipment and publications on the making of weather observations at sea. The Observatory managed a fleet of 38 VOS at the end of 2007 - 2008.

Mr Wong Chi-fai of the Observatory’s Port Meteorological Office discussing with a deck officer aboard a VOS RADIATION MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT

The Observatory operates the Environmental Radiation Monitoring Programme in Hong Kong.

In 2007, measurements results indicated no measurable increase in the ambient radiation levels, artificial radioactivity in the local environment and foodstuff consumed in Hong Kong, as compared with the respective levels before the operation of the nuclear power stations at Daya Bay and Ling Ao, Guangdong.

Mr Yip Choi-hung, Scientific Assistant, collecting air particulate samples in King’s Park for the determination of radioactivity TIME STANDARD AND GEOPHYSICAL SERVICES

The Observatory maintains the Hong Kong time standard. Time checking services for the public are provided through the Internet, the Dial-a-Weather system and local radio stations. In 2007-2008, the Internet time checking service registered over 506 million hits, an increase of 23% compared with last year.

The Observatory monitors local and distant

earthquakes round the clock using its seismograph network. The Observatory also monitors long term crustal movement using two continuous GPS stations.

To strengthen the ability to forecast tsunami, the Observatory adapted through the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission a numerical tsunami model and incorporated the local high resolution bathymetry and topography data from Marine Department and Lands Department into the model. The model is capable of simulating the propagation of tsunamis caused by earthquakes in the South China Sea and estimating the tsunami heights along the coast.

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An output of the tsunami model showing the propagation of tsunami due to a hypothetical submarine earthquake in the Manila Trench

CLIMATE SERVICES AND STUDIES In 2007-2008, the Observatory entertained 730

written requests for meteorological and climatological data, generating a revenue of around $180,000.

In March 2008, the Observatory issued an outlook

for the total rainfall in Hong Kong and the number of tropical cyclones likely to affect Hong Kong in 2008. A global climate model was successfully implemented at the Observatory to support the preparation of seasonal forecasts.

To promote awareness of climate change to school

children in Hong Kong, the Observatory produced an educational package on climate change in mid 2007. Copies of the package were distributed to primary and secondary schools as well as local libraries. Copies were also sent to local NGOs and corporations interested in the package, as well as the weather service in Macao.

Educational Package on Climate Change

A voluntary outreach team of climate change speakers was formed in September 2007. These Observatory staff gave some 70 talks at the enthusiastic invitation of schools, professional bodies and green groups by the end of March 2008. The Observatory also participated in campaigns organized by green groups to promote actions against climate change.

The Observatory provided support to four

professional institutions of Hong Kong in the organization of the International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC) in May 2007. It is the first large-scale international conference on climate change ever held in Hong Kong, demonstrating the increasing awareness of the Hong Kong public on the importance of global climate change.

By virtue of the contribution of the Observatory to

the work of the IPCC, the award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize to IPCC brought joy and honour to the Observatory. The Director of the Observatory, Mr Lam Chiu-ying, was both a contributing author and an expert reviewer of the Working Group I Report of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (AR4). AR4 also made reference to a research paper by Observatory staff on how landfalling tropical cyclones were affected by El Nino Southern Oscillation.

Photograph taken at the International Conference on Climate Change ICCC (From right to left: Mr Lam Chiu-ying, Director of the Hong Kong Observatory; Professor Qin Dahe, Co-chair of IPCC Working Group I; Ms Luciana Wong, Chairperson of ICCC Technical Committee; Dr Osvaldo Canziani, Co-chair of IPCC Working Group II; Professor Ogunlade Davidson, Co-chair of IPCC working Group III; and Ir Otto Poon, Chairperson of ICCC Organizing Committee)

The Observatory updated its projections for the temperature in Hong Kong in the 21st century, in the light of the revised global projections in the Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) of the Intergovernmental panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which was published in 2007. This is a

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follow-up to its initial study carried out in 2004, based on the projections presented in the Third Assessment Report of IPCC. TRAINING

In 2007-2008, a total of 28 Observatory staff was sent to institutions in China mainland and overseas for professional development.

The Observatory actively contributes to the

advancement of meteorology worldwide by offering training courses to meteorological personnel from members of WMO. Nine meteorologists, from Colombia, Costa Rica, Guinea-Bissau, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Uganda, attended a training course on “Automatic Weather Station Network” organized by the Observatory in November 2007. Another two weather forecasters from Vietnam came to the Observatory in November 2007 to study tropical cyclone forecasting skills.

Meteorologists from 9 different countries taking part in the WMO training course in Hong Kong.

4 students from local universities took part under the Co-operative Education Scheme and Industrial Attachment Scheme in 2007. They were attached to the Observatory to carry out research projects ranging from lightning, nowcasting to data analysis.

As part of the education programme to keep the

public out of harm’s way in inclement weather, the Observatory offered seminars such as "Safety at Work in Inclement and Hot Weather" to members of the public and staff of other government departments. Altogether some 2,000 participants took part in these seminars in 2007-2008.

To promote popular science, the Observatory continues to develop educational materials on meteorology, radiation and geophysics on its “Educational Resources” webpage. Dispatched in the form of “e-bulletin” to students, teachers and interested readers, they are very well received by the public.

OUTREACH AND PUBLICITY ACTIVITIES

Apart from conducting public courses, the Observatory also organized outreach activities for members of the public. In particular, the Open Days in March 2008, also the Observatory’s 125th Anniversary Open Day, attracted more than 10,000 visitors of all ages.

Director of the Hong Kong Observatory, Mr Lam Chiu-ying taking photographs with visitors during the Open Day in March 2008

The King's Park Meteorological Station of the Observatory was opened to the public for its first ever Open Day in more than 50 years in January 2008.

Scouts listening attentively to an explanation of the operation of the Upper-air Sounding System in King’s Park

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The Observatory, the Department of Applied Physics of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the Hong Kong Joint-school Meteorological Association jointly established the "Hong Kong Community Weather Information Network" in August 2007. The website of the network was also launched on the Internet, providing people with weather information from the automatic weather stations of participating schools. The primary aim was to promote an interest in weather observation and meteorology amongst school children. By March 2008, the network had 35 school members.

The Hong Kong Aviation Club, Chinese Young

Men's Christian Association (YMCA), Civil Aviation Department and Observatory jointly organised the Hong Kong Aviation Day 2007 at the old Kai Tak Airport in July 2007. The objective of the event was to promote public interest in aviation activities and related education in Hong Kong. Other co-organisers of the event included local airlines, helicopter companies and various local aviation sports associations.

Ms Sandy Song of the Observatory introduced the aviation weather services in Hong Kong to participants of the Hong Kong Aviation Day 2007

To promote public understanding of weather, the Observatory published the book "Basic Meteorological Knowledge" (in Chinese only) in October 2007. The book explains in layman terms basic meteorological knowledge, techniques in weather observation and analysis, as well as global phenomena such as El Nino/La Nina, greenhouse effects and climate change. Some common weather phenomena in Hong Kong such as the monsoon, thunderstorms, fog, haze and tropical cyclones are also explained using actual cases. The book had become one of the top ten best selling publications of the Government Bookstore in a few weeks' time after publication.

The book on "Basic Meteorological Knowledge" published by the Observatory

The membership of the “Friends of the

Observatory” (FoOb) continued to grow year after year. By the end of March 2008, FoOb membership exceeded 8,400. In addition to helping the Observatory in the annual Open Day and other exhibitions, volunteers of FoOb continued to help organize guided tours of the Observatory for over 1,800 members of the public during weekends in 2007-2008. A prize giving ceremony was held in February 2008 to present awards to outstanding Friends of the Observatory members.

Group photo of the Director of the Observatory, Mr Lam Chiu-ying (front row, 6th left) with the participants in the "Friends of the Observatory" Prize Giving Ceremony

Apart from the FoOb guided tours, the Observatory Headquarters also received over 5,000 members of the public in groups in 2007-2008. The Observatory staff also visited 20 primary schools to give talks on weather observation and weather warnings. In addition to the 70 talks delivered by the climate change speaker team, professional meteorologists of the Observatory gave another 80 talks for various organizations, secondary

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schools and universities. Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) collaborated

with the Observatory to launch the third series of radio programmes on meteorology in 2007. Each episode featured the experienced RTHK host Mr. Cheng Kai-ming and an Observatory meteorologist to discuss interesting weather phenomena and topical meteorological issues. REGIONAL COOPERATION

The Director led a 17-member delegation to Zhongshan to attend the 13th Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao (GHM) Meeting on Cooperation in Meteorological Operations and the 22nd GHM Seminar on Meteorological Science and Technology in January 2008. A total of 22 scientific papers were discussed, 12 of which authored and presented by Observatory staff.

Mr Lam Chiu-ying (2nd left), Director of the Hong Kong Observatory, took part in the Guangdong - Hong Kong – Macao Meteorological Cooperation Meeting to discuss regional collaboration

The Hong Kong Observatory joined the Asia-Pacific satellite data re-transmission services in March 2008, sharing satellite data with other meteorological services in the region. Satellite data is one of the important sources of data for numerical weather prediction models.

The Hong Kong Observatory and the Guangdong

Meteorological Bureau conducted mutual visits in 2007-2008 to strengthen cooperation in weather forecasting and warning services. Besides understanding the development of our neighbouring meteorological services, the visits also enhanced exchange of experience in operational weather forecasting and warning.

Hong Kong Observatory's Assistant Director, Mr H G Wai, Scientific Officers, Mr Y K Leung and Dr K C Yeung, visited Guangdong Meteorological Bureau (GMB). Deputy Director of GMB Mr Y Xu (3rd left) explained the work of the Guangzhou Central Meteorological Observatory

INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

Seventeen members of the Observatory staff serve as experts in various capacities in international organizations, such as WMO and ICAO. They take up 14 posts at the level of Chairman, Vice-Chairman, or Project Leaders in areas ranging from public weather services, disaster prevention to aviation meteorology and coordination of world weather websites.

At the 15th Congress of the United Nations World

Meteorological Organization (WMO), the Director of Hong Kong Observatory, Mr Lam Chiu-ying, was appointed to chair some of the meetings. These were the highest level WMO meetings ever chaired by a member of the Observatory. The Congress of WMO is held every four years in Geneva to determine the direction and strategy of meteorological work worldwide in the coming four years. Some 600 heads of national meteorological services, ministers and senior government officials from more than 180 countries and territories participated in the Congress in 2007.

Director of the Hong Kong Observatory, Mr Lam Chiu-ying, at the 15th Congress of the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO) (Courtesy of WMO)

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OUTLOOK FOR 2008-09

In 2008, the focus is to provide the best possible weather service in support of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Firstly, the Observatory would provide weather observation information, weather forecast and warnings in respect of the equestrian events in Hong Kong. Secondly, the Observatory would operate a nowcasting system to support our Beijing counterparts in forecasting severe weather in Beijing during the Olympics. Thirdly, the Observatory would provide a tailor-made weather information service to support Hong Kong's windsurfing team competing in Qingdao. In order to accomplish these missions, the Observatory’s staff members have been working in the past few years to enhance the Observatory’s technological capability. The spin-offs of such enhancement are expected to become part of the meteorological service in Hong Kong after the Olympics.

The "One District One Station" project would continue to expand and the next new stations will be set up in Kowloon City and Wanchai.

Visibility observation will be enhanced by establishing a new visibility meter at the eastern approach of Victoria Harbour.

A lightning alerting service for user-specified locations will be launched in the Observatory’s website.

Internet website service for mobile communication platforms will be enhanced, so that people may get the weather information they need wherever they are.

The Observatory will host a Hong Kong-Guangdong-Macao workshop on climate change, covering scientific as well as other aspects such as socio-economic impact of climate change. A Hong Kong-Guangdong-Macao joint climate change exhibition will also be staged in Hong Kong.

A study of the long-term trend of rainfall up to the end of 21st century in Hong Kong will be carried out based on the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

To commemorate the 125th anniversary of the Observatory in 2008, the Observatory will organize a special exhibition at the Hong Kong Museum of History to show its development history. Past and current Observatory colleagues will be invited to contribute articles to chronicle their experience, efforts, ideas or even daily routines. A book containing a collection of

these articles will be published to let readers see the Observatory’s history from the human perspective.

To cope with the rapid growth of air traffic, there are plans to upgrade the Observatory’s service capacity at the Hong Kong International Airport, including:

a second generation LIDAR Windshear Alerting

System; an intensive study of turbulence at the airport using

aircraft equipped with meteorological sensors; a microwave radiometer at the airport.

A special webpage in the Observatory website showing the 125th Anniversary events

Outreach and public education will continue to be an important part of the Observatory’s effort. We shall continue to hold weather courses, seminars and lectures for the public, school children and other sectors of the community. We shall continue to take an active role in the ‘Science in the Public Service’ campaign to let people know more about the scientific achievements of government departments and the application of science and technology in providing services to the public.