Webinar on Hotspot and Haze Assessment (H2A) for the southern ASEAN region (1 – 2 July 2021)
The ASEAN Specialised Meteorological Centre (ASMC) conducted a Webinar on Hotspot and Haze Assessment (H2A) for the southern ASEAN region over two days from 1 to 2 July 2021. The Webinar was conducted under the ASMC’s 5-year Regional Capability Programme which was launched in 2018 to address the priority training needs of the ASEAN region.
The Webinar welcomed 14 regional participants from the environmental policy, air quality monitoring, fire and rescue services and meteorological sectors. The participants shared actively on their country’s monitoring of fire and haze and were keen to learn from ASMC on the use of satellites for hotspot and haze monitoring and detection. The workshop included lectures on dispersion modelling, seasonal and sub-seasonal prediction products, as well as latest information of new satellites and satellite products for hotspots and haze monitoring available on the ASMC website.
Participants with the ASMC meteorologists and research scientists in a group photo.
Ms Razatul Aini Binti Razlan, from the Department of Environment in Malaysia shared that the lectures were relevant and useful, and she would recommend the programme to her country officers. She hoped similar training workshops in the future would be opened to more participants and emphasise on the interpretation of satellite images.
 Screen shots of the lectures conducted by ASMC meteorologists and research scientists. |
In the wake of restrictions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, all of ASMC’s workshops under the 5-year Regional Capability Programme including workshops on Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP), ASEAN Climate Data, Analysis and Projections (ARCDAP) and the ASEAN Climate Outlook Forum (ASEANCOF) have moved to an online platform to continuously engage and raise regional capabilities in weather forecasting, subseasonal-to-seasonal prediction, climate change projections and haze monitoring.