Conferences and Seminars

Dr. Ghulam Rasul, Director General, PMD held a Meeting with Chinese Delegation from Science and Technology Service Network Initiative (STS) on CPEC Risk Assessment and Mitigation at Met Headquarters, Islamabad on
17th January, 2017.

Date: January 12, 2017

Press Release

Stakeholders Meeting held under the Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Climate Change for Comparison of Agriculture and Climate Models for Pakistan

A meeting of stakeholders for AgMIP Project of Pakistan was held at Meteorological Headquarter, Islamabad which was attended by the large number of concerned organizations including Mr. Nisar A Memon, Chairman Water Environment Forum (WEF) Pakistan, Dr. Qamar-uz-Zaman Chaudhry, Climate Expert and DG Met.  Mir Yusuf Badain, Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Climate Change chaired the meeting. Agricultural Models Intercomparison (AgMIP) Project of Pakistan is part of the global activity and it is lead by University of Agriculture Faisalabad and its second phase is nearing the end. The project is aimed on identification of the best models suited for Pakistani agroclimatic conditions keeping in view the future climatic trends. Pakistan Meteorological Department has been providing the baseline climatic characteristics and future projections of temperature and precipitation on district scale. Agricultural and economic models are being tested by research teams of UAF for different cropping systems in Pakistan. On successful completion of the first phase for Rice-Wheat cropping system where the results were very encouraging, the second phase was launched in Cotton-Wheat system.
Dr. Ashfaq Ahmad Chathha, PI of the AgMIP project briefed the audience about the results obtained in first and second phase in the light of past climate and highlighted the impacts changing climate on future crop yields. He also presented the socio-economic impacts and suggested various adaptation measures to counter the adverse effect of climate on food security. The research findings of PMD indicated that temperature in agricultural plains has risen over the last 60 years and the increase in recent two decades was higher than the previous trend. Also the rate of increase of night temperatures is greater that the increase noticed in day temperatures. Agricultural experts identified that the increase in minimum temperature is responsible for the decline in rice yield because it reverses the grain production process. Similarly, the untimely rains have significantly impacted the crop production especially rains at the time of harvesting and threshing caused pre-and post harvest losses. Abnormally wet weather conditions at critical stages of crop growth and development promoted the growth of insects and pest which reduced the quantity and quality of yield.
Future projections indicate that there will be no significant change in rainfall amount but its temporal and spatial distribution will be highly influenced due to climate change. It means that untimely rains may threaten the crop production in future increasing losses at maturity stage. Temperatures are likely to increase @0.4C per decade in agricultural plains of Punjab and Sindh which will ultimately increase the water requirement of crops and also heat wave conditions may retard crop growth and development. High temperatures coupled with abnormally wet summer climatic conditions in cotton zone may help pathogens to grow which may hamper the crop yield. The scientists say that in the absence of adaptation measures, the anticipated losses and uncertainty in crop production will be magnified many times over the prevailing scenarios.
The main findings of the projects are

Project teams have suggested adaptation packages
For Wheat

For Cotton

• Heat and drought tolerant cultivars should be developed
• Balanced used of fertilizer should be applied
• Row spacing should be increase from 75 cm to 85 cm

 





 

 

Spokesman
Pakistan Meteorological Department
Islamabad

Mutual Collaboration on Adaptation to Climate Change : MoU signed by InterCooperation and PMD

MoU signed between InterCooperation(IC), Swiss NGO, and Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) for Mutual Collaboration on Adaptaion to Climate Change on 17 September 2015 at PAU, Peshawar.

MoU was signed by Dr Arjumand Nizami, Country Programme Director and Dr. Ghulam Rasul, Director General of PMD. PMD and IC are both supporting University of Agriculture Peshawar in strengthening of the CCC.

Mutual Collaboration on Adaptation to Climate Change : MoU signed by UAP and PMD

MoU signed between The University of Peshawar, and Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) for Mutual Collaboration on Adaptaion to Climate Change on 17 September 2015 at PAU, Peshawar.

MoU was signed by Prof. Dr Zahoor A. Sawati, Vice Chancellor and Dr. Ghulam Rasul, Director General of PMD. Both the parties agree to continue collaboration on strengthening the CCC at UAP.

Spokesman

Date: Aug 13, 2015

Press Release

Met-Office Launched Phone-Based Services
Inaugurated by Chairman NDMA

Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) launched district-wide Phone based Weather Information Service today, with the collaboration of Centre for Language Engineering (CLE), of University of Engineering and Technology (UET), Lahore. The Weather Information System was inaugurated by Chairman NDMA, Maj. Gen Asghar Nawaz.
Dr Ghulam Rasul, Director General PMD, Dr. Sarmad Hussain and Dr. Tania Habib from UET stated that it is completely automated system which will pick the weather forecast of any district from the computer model archive of PMD.

Weather information service provides weather forecast of 139 districts of Pakistan by dialing the number 051-9250363. When a user calls this number, the user is greeted by the system and then asked for a district name. The system provides the next 24 hour weather forecast of the desired district to the caller.

DG PMD further informed that more details on weather information will be added and the number of phone lines will be increased and specialized weather information system for farmers of different districts of Pakistan will also be launched soon.

--sd--                       

(Muhammad Aleem ul Hassan)
  DEPUTY DIRECTOR     
Pakistan Meteorological Department
Islamabad...................

August 03, 2015

Press Release   

Climate Related Maritime and Coastal Studies : MoU signed by NCMPR and PMD

MoU signed between National Center for Maritime Policy Reseach (NCMPR), Bahria University, Karachi, and Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) for research on “Meteorological and Climatic Factors in Relation to Maritime Domain and Coastal Areas of the Country" on 3rd August 2015 in Headquarter Building of Pakistan Meteorological Department.

MoU was signed by Mr. Sayyid Khawar Ali HI (M) , Vice Admiral (Retd) / Director General NCMPR Pakistan and Dr. Ghulam Rasul, Director General of PMD. The coastline of Pakistan extends 1,050 km (650 mi), 250 km falling in Sind province and 800 km in Balochistan. Through MoU between NCMPR and PMD will work together to conduct research in maritime and coastal domains to enhance scholarly cooperation. The broader areas of cooperation will include mutually beneficial activities which are determined to be desirable and feasible for the achievement of the objectives of joint research projects.

Spokesman

    Latest Image of Islamabad Radar, July 12, 2015 1625PST            Latest Image of Karachi Radar, July 12, 2015 1602PST     

 Dated: June 4, 2015

Press Release

 Dr. Ghulam Rasul has taken the charge as DG Pakistan Meteorological Department

Dr. Ghulam Rasul has taken the charge as Director General (DG) of Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) here on Thursday. On the occasion, Mr. Iftikhar Ahmed Mir, Senior Joint Secretary Aviation Division formally handed over the charge of New DG PMD to Dr. Ghulam Rasul in the presence of all Directors.

Dr. Ghulam Rasul is a well-known scientist and a researcher in the field of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate Change who has more than 100 publications and research articles in the National and International journals. He has a vast experience in the field of agro-meteorology, meteorology, glaciology and climatology. He was awarded by SAARC Young Scientists Award in 1993 and won Senior Scientist Research Award in 2007. He is also working as a Coordinator of Climate Services Group in WMO (World Meteorological Organization), Co-Chair of Asian Water Cycle Initiative (AWCI) of Global earth Observation Systems (GEOSS), Member of World Bank’s Abu Dhabi Dialogue for Indus Basin, Member of Integrated Research on Disaster Risk Reduction (IDRR) of UNISDR and Vice-Chair, Academic Committee of Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) on Climate and Weather.

Spokesman

March 25, 2015

Press Release   

Flood Warning System: MoU signed by UNESCO and PMD

MoU signed between UNESCO and PMD for the project entitled as “Strategic Strengthening of Flood Warning and Management Capacity of Pakistan" on Wednesday afternoon in Headquarter Building of Pakistan Meteorological Department.

MoU was signed by Ms. Vibeke Jensen, Director UNESCO Pakistan Office and Mr. Iftikhar Ahmed Mir, Director General of PMD. The signing ceremony was attended by representatives of JICA, NDMA, FFC, PCRWR and SUPARCO. Pakistan is extremely vulnerable to floods. Despite significant improvement in flood forecasting system for Indus River, there is still a gap regarding flood warnings for eastern rivers of Pakistan. This project will be helpful to enhance the capability of PMD for Flood Early Warning System (FEWS) for eastern rivers (Chenab, Jhelum, Ravi etc) during monsoon season. The highly valuable cooperation and support of UNESCO and JICA will be helpful to strengthen the Flood Warning and Management Capacity of Pakistan.

Spokesman

Date:   18^th July, 2014

Time:  1330 hrs

Press Release 

SHAWAAL LIKELY TO COMMENCE IN THE COUNTRY FROM JULY 29, 2014

Pakistan Meteorological Department

The current astronomical analysis by Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) suggests that there is a fair chance of sighting the new moon of Shawaal, 1435 Hijri on the evening of 28th July, 2014, in the southern parts the country. Therefore, the month of Shawaal, would commence from 29th July, 2014 on Tuesday, subject to confirmation by the Central Ruet-e- Hilal Committee.

According to PMD, the following threshold values of the astronomical parameters are essential for sighting the new moon of Shawaal, 1435Hijri.

As such conditions for the sighting the new moon of Shawaal, on July 28, 2014 are consonant with the prescribed criteria in the southern parts of country (Sindh and Balochistan and South Punjab), therefore, moon would be sighted on the evening of 28th July, 2014 and Eid-ul Fitr would be celebrated in the Country on Tuesday, 29th July, 2014 subject to confirmation by the Central Ruet-e- Hilal Committee.
           
Partly cloudy/cloudy weather is expected in Lower Sindh, however fair weather is expected in other parts of the country on the evening of 28th July, 2014.

--sd--                 

(Muhammad Aleem ul Hassan)

Deputy Director NWFC

Date:  14^th April, 2014

Time: 1630 PST

Press Release

Early Warning System for coming Monsoon

 LoA signed between PMD & UNDP

 A Letter of Agreement (LoA) is signed between The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) on Monday at PMD Headquarter. The purpose of LOA is to strengthen the “Early Warnings Dissemination during coming monsoon” under the Supporting Community Resilience (SCORE) Project”. The LoA was signed by Mr. Arif Mahmood, Director General PMD while UNDP was led by Mr. Herman Besgsme, CTA, DRR, The team of experts of PMD (Chief Meteorologists and Directors of different units), Mr.Qasim Naqvi, AFA, UNDP and Mr. Ahmed Kamal, Member,DRR, NDMA. were also present in the signing ceremony.

This LoA will provide a framework for timely dissemination of Flash Flood Alerts using FM radio transmission and SMS for targeted areas of vulnerable areas with special focus on Khyber Pukhtunkhaw districts Peshawar, Charsada and Nowsherea. At the end of the ceremony, Director General, PMD thanked UNDP and NDMA for supporting such initiatives and hoped that it would strengthen the cooperation between organizations for providing the better services to the nation for effective DRM activities at gross root level.

(Spokesman)                

Pakistan Meteorological Department

Date:  27^th January, 2014

Time: 1600 PST

Press Release

PMD'S AVIATION MET SERVICE IS NOW CERTFIED AS PER THE ISO 9001:2008 STANDARDS

The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) feels honored to announce that in addition to its two offices working at Jinnah International Airport Karachi (JIAP) and Allama Iqbal International Airport (AIIP) (certified earlier in Nov. 2012 as per ISO 9001:2008 standards) the 15 more Met/Aeromet Offices discharging  duties of providing the Aviation Meteorological Services to national and international air navigation have been certified as per the ISO 9001:2008 compliant Quality Management System (QMS) standards with effect from November 26, 2013.

It is to be recalled that the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and International Civil Air Organization (ICAO) obligation was to establish and implement the ISO 9001:2008 compliant Quality Management System (QMS) in the provision of international air navigation latest by November 15, 2012.

The PMD spokesman further informed that the remaining Met/Aeromet Offices providing the aviation meteorological services would be certified as per ISO 9001:2008 standards during 2014-15. 

(Spokesman)

Date: 23 Dec, 2013

Press Release

Mr. Arif Mahmood (DG Met) elected as Vice President of WMO

Mr. Arif Mahmood, Director General Pakistan Meteorological    Department (PMD) has been elected as a “Vice President of Regional Association II (Asia Region) of World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The 191 member states of the WMO are divided into six regional associations and the Regional Association II consists of 35 member states of Asia who unanimously elected Mr. Arif Mahmood as a Vice President of the association.

 The spokesman of PMD informed that the election of Mr. Arif Mahmood as a Vice President of WMO is an honor for PMD and Pakistan. He is a very experienced and dedicated scientist with the exposure of work for more than 35 years by rendering services in various units of PMD.  He did his M.Sc in Defence & Strategic Studies from National Defence University, Islamabad in 2008 and was promoted as a Director General of PMD on Sep 2010. He was selected as Permanent Representative (PR) of WMO for Pakistan in June 2013. His distinction would make him capable of representing Pakistan to establish links and co-ordination with other countries and international organizations for the socio-economic development of the people against the impending seismological & hydro-meteorological natural disasters.

SPOKESMAN

Press Release 

Dated: October 3, 2013
Time: 1800 PST 

ZILHAJJ LIKELY TO COMMENCE IN THE COUNTRY FROM OCTOBER 07, 2013

  The current astronomical analysis by Pakistan Meteorological Department suggests that there is a very good chance of sighting the new moon of Zilhajj 1434 Hijri in the evening of 06^th October, 2013, throughout the country. Therefore, the month of Zilhajj, would commence from 07^th October, 2013 on Monday, subject to confirmation by the Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee.

According to PMD, the following threshold values of the astronomical parameters are essential for sighting the new moon of Zilhajj, 1434 Hijri.

• Age of the new moon should be more than 26 hours and 40 minutes at the time of twilight for sighting new moon of Zilhajj whereas this time it is more than 35 hours throughout the country.
• Minimum duration for the new moon after sunset should be more than 41 minutes whereas at this occasion, it is more than 45 minutes at a number of stations in the country.
• The positions of the new moon and its angles at the time of sunset are also favorable for sighting of the new moon throughout the country.

The conditions for the sighting the new moon of Zilhajj, on October 06^th , 2013 are consonant with the prescribed criteria throughout the  country, therefore, 1^st day of Zilhajj would be on 07^th October, 2013 on Monday and Eid-ul-Azha would be celebrated in the country on Wednesday, October 16, 2013 (inshaallah), subject to confirmation by the Central Ruet-e- Hilal Committee.

Fair and Dry (Clear) weather is expected in most parts of the country on the evening of October 06, 2013.

Dated: July 02, 2013

Press Release

Mr. Arif Mahmood, Director General PMD designated as

Permanent Representative of Pakistan with World Meteorological Organization

Mr. Arif Mahmood, Director General  Pakistan  Meteorological  Department (PMD) has  been  designated  as the Permanent Representative (PR) of  Pakistan with  World  Meteorological  Organization (WMO). This distinction would make him capable of representing not only PMD but also establish links and co-ordination with other agencies, relevant  universities  and  the  private  sector  involved  in meteorology and  allied disciplines  for the socio-economic development of the people against the impending seismological & hydro-meteorological natural disasters.

He is a very experienced and dedicated scientist with the exposure of work for more than 35 years by rendering services in various units of PMD.  Besides his Masters from University of the Punjab he earned the post-graduation in Seismology from Japan in 1986. He did his M.Sc. in Defence & Strategic Studies from National Defence University (NDU), Islamabad in 2008. He also participated in the ‘First Pakistan Antarctica Expedition’ from December, 1990 to February, 1991.

                                                                                                                                                                                                          Spokesman

The AWCI Training Workshop on Climate Change Impact Assessment Islamabad, Pakistan,
15 - 17 September 2014

Introduction

The Asian Water Cycle Initiative (AWCI) has developed an advanced river management system, which is based on integration of data from earth observation satellites and in-situ networks with other types of data, including numerical weather prediction model outputs, climate model outputs, geographical information, and socio-economic data. The system has been successfully applied to a set of AWCI demonstration basins showing a high potential for practical applications including assessment of climate change impacts on watershed hydrological regimes and hence water resources availability in future. While AWCI has always aimed at exploitation of available scientific knowledge and technology advancement for addressing the societal needs in the arena of water resources, such efforts on bridging the science at one side and decision making process and operational use at another side have become even more critical now, when AWCI has entered its second phase. Negative consequences of natural hazards are on the rise despite of scientific and technology advancements in relevant fields and thus it is an imperative to implement activities that facilitates implementation of advanced technology and latest scientific knowledge into praxis. This will contribute to building up a resilient society and achieving sustainable development. Accordingly, AWCI has been now pursuing operational applications of the developed system and, more generally, the established data integration approaches. This requires capacity building activities to assure the system is understood by a large community of experts and practitioners. The planned Training Workshop is one of these capacity building efforts and it is organized as part of the AWCI related projects funded by APN under the CAPaBLE programme, titled: “Impact of Climate Change on Glacier Melting and Water Cycle Variability in Asian River Basins” and led by Dr. Ghulam Rasul, PMD. The Workshop is designed for researchers and practitioners, who are working on assessments of climate change impacts on water resources and also for those with interest in hydrological modeling in snow and glacier basins.

Objectives

The objectives of the Training Workshop include:

• Thematic lectures on Climate-Water-Food-Health Nexus and APN and AWCI related activities in Pakistan.
• Introduction, description and demonstration of capabilities of the Water and Energy Budget Distributed Hydrological Model for Snow and glacier basins (WEB-DHM-S), which is a novel and robust tool for cold region hydrological applications.
• In-depth explanation of the techniques for climate change impact assessment studies on water resources that are built in the Data Integration and Analysis System (DIAS) and available on-line (demonstration version).
• Explanation and Hands-on training on the use of these methods that include:
selection of suitable GCM outputs for the region of interest,
rainfall bias correction of these outputs,
downscaling of the GCM outputs for hydrological modeling at the basin scale,
hydrological runs by WEB-DHM (without the advanced snow and glacier component) – informative lecture on WEB-DHM will be provided but not full training of the model due to time constraints, and analyses of the hydrological simulation results to assess possible impacts of climate change with focus on high flows and floods.

For more detail click here

NTU International Science Conference
ON
Climate Change: Multidecadal and Beyond 
National Taiwan University 
September 17 - 20, 2012

Aims and scope

The main theme of the conference is focused on the observation and understanding of climate change, and the scope of the reviews will include theoretical studies, observational studies, and model simulations that address fundamental issues. The conference welcomes contributions in the form of oral or poster papers that are related to the main theme and the scope of the reviews. The Proceedings consisted of invited lectures and referee-reviewed contributed papers will be published in the Book Series on Asia-Pacific Weather and Climate by World Scientific and Imperial College Press.

Organizing Committee

• Chih-Pei Chang  (Department of Meteorology, Naval Postgraduate School, USA & National Taiwan University)
• Hung-Chi Kuo  (Department of Atmospheric Sciences, National Taiwan University)
• Mojib Latif  (Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, Kiel University, Germany)
• Chang-Shou Lin  (National Taiwan University)
• Chung-Hsiung Sui  (Department of Atmospheric Sciences, National Taiwan University)
• Mike Wallace  (Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, USA)
• Shouhong Wang  (Indiana University, USA)

Further information & Registration

For more detail click here

All participants, supported or not, are required to register by Aug. 17, 2012 , please click here.

INTERNATINAL CONFERENCE
ON
CLIMATE CHANGE: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES
9-11TH May, 2012, Islamabad, Pakistan

The conference intends to promote exchange of knowledge and expertise of scientific community dealing with the effects of climate change. The conference would further provide an opportunity to the international scientific community to develop a common visionary approach to tackle the issues related to:

1- Agriculture / Forestry
2- Biodiversity
3- Natural Disasters
4- Energy
5- Water / Glacier Resources
6- Natural Resources

The conference will include oral, poster and video presentations. The schedule for the submission of abstracts, posters and oral presentations is as under:

Last date for abstract submission : 15th March, 2012
Last date for presentation and full length paper: 15th April, 2012

Venue: Attar-ur-Rahman School of Applied Biosciences, NUST, Islamabad

Pakistan Council for Science and Technology
Shahrah-e-Jamhuriat, Sector  G=5/2,
Islamabad, Pakistan
Telephone: +92 (51) 9205157, 9204416, Fax: +92 (51) 9205171
Email: pcst@comsats.net.pk, info@pcst.org.pk,
Website: http://www.pcst.org.pk

UIP SYMPOSIUM

UIP SYMPOSIUM presents great opportunity for business development and
applied R&D through University-Industry Partnership-UIP Program:

Know R&D (technologies) for citrus and pulses sector
Find business solution suits to your citrus and pulses business
Listen expert speeches on development of citrus and pulses
Get exposure to R&D issues in citrus and pulses businesses
Meet R&D experts and business executives.

Rahmat
Chief Coordinator
Institute of Research Promotion- IRP
uip@irp.edu.pk 0321-4917181
Muhammad Hasnain
Assistant Director (STI)
PASTIC Sub-Centre (PSF), FSD
pasticf@yahoo.com - 0300-7600118

PASTIC National Center, QAU Campus, Islamabad.
www.pastic.gov.pk

Fifth South Asia Economic Summit
on
'Making Growth Inclusive and Sustainable in South Asia'
17-19th September 2012 (Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI, Pakistan)

This is to inform you that they have announced the call for abstracts/papers. This year's theme is 'Making Growth Inclusive and Sustainable in South Asia'.

They encourage original contributions from researchers particularly from South Asian countries who wish to study the various themes proposed in the call. For a greater understanding of these themes please visiting http://www.sdpi.org/saes/index.html. We will appreciate if you can circulate the call amongst peers in order to
ensure maximum participation. Kindly note that the deadline for submission of abstracts is 9th April 2012.

Fifth South Asian Economic Summit 17 -19th September 2012
Making Growth Inclusive and Sustainable in South Asia

Call for Abstracts

At the time of this call four key developments are taking place on the global front. First we are being reminded that the effects of global financial crisis are here to stay for a little longer. This has been validated by the Euro zone crisis that has already started to impact South Asia. Second is 17th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change held at Durban which is now being vowed as an important step towards combating global climate change. The third development is regional in nature carrying significant importance for South Asia's future. The 17th Summit of the heads of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was held in Maldives and witnessed signing of some important agreements between member states. Finally and most concerning of all that economic growth in the South Asian region has been projected to decline at least for the next two quarters. It is important to take a stock of these developments in order to set in sequence the priorities for the next South Asia Economic Summit to be held between 17-19th September 2012 in Islamabad, Pakistan.

We encourage original contributions from researchers particularly from South Asian countries who wish to study the various themes towards making economic growth more inclusive and sustainable in South Asian economies. Some proposed themes are given below and others can be seen at the Summit webpage: http://www.sdpi.org/saes/index.html

Tentative Panels:

• Macroeconomic stability and responses to internal and external shocks
• Revisiting the trade barriers in South Asia
• Connectivity between people and places in South Asia
• Regional cooperation for energy and water security
• Future prospects of migration and remittance flows to South Asia
• Climate change, natural disasters, food security and livelihoods
• Poverty and inequality impact of growth policies in South Asia
• Growing urbanization and rising middle class in South Asia
• Regional options for inclusive entrepreneurship and innovation
• Women and youth engagement in South Asia