Voluntary Observing Ships Program in Malaysia

ALUI BIN BAHARI

MALAYSIAN METEOROLOGICAL DEPARTMENT

The Division of Marine Meteorology and Oceanography (DMMO) was established in the Malaysian Meteorological Department (MMD) in 1975. MMD has participated actively in the Voluntary Observing Ships (VOS) program, ever since 1974 in an effort to build up an adequate marine meteorological database. Ships are recruited and categorized into three different groups i.e. Selected Ships, Supplementary Ships and Auxiliary Ships according to WMO guidelines, circular No. W/MA/MS dated 28 February 1991.

Ship Category	Selected	Supplementary	Auxiliary	TOTAL
Number of ships	29	32	20	81

Table 1: Number of Malaysian recruited ships under VOS Program.

Currently, a total of 81 Malaysian ships are maintained and visited by PMOs of MMD at three seaports namely Port Klang (1976), Port Bintulu (1984) and Port Kota Kinabalu (1988). Port Meteorological Officers (PMOs) normally visit each Malaysian recruited vessel once in three months for briefing and calibration of the meteorological equipment onboard. The number of VOS ships visited by the PMOs from 2001 to 2005 is shown in Table 2.

Year	Number of visits	Ship Category
		Selected	Supplementary	Auxiliary
2001	52	43	6	3
2002	61	47	8	6
2003	37	33	3	1
2004	40	35	4	1
2005	24	23	1	0
TOTAL 214		181	22	11

Table 2: Number of ship visits by PMOs from 2001 to 2005.

During a ship visit, completed meteorological logbooks from VOS ships are also collected. These logbooks are quality checked at DMMO office before archiving, and dispatched to the TOGA Marine Climatology Data Centre in United Kingdom, every quarterly.

The number of data received from Malaysian VOS vessels through meteorological logbooks from year 1974 to 2005 is depicted in Figure 1. From 1997 onward, data from the VOS program is observed reducing sharply. Figure 2 shows the monthly performance of the Malaysian VOS program for the region bounded by latitude 5 °S – 20 °N and longitude 95 °E – 130 °E.

MMD has taken steps to encourage VOS ships to maintain a high number of observations by issuing appreciation letters monthly to ships reporting more than 20 observations per month as shown in Figure 3. Besides this, MMD also presents excellence awards yearly to the three best reporting ships for their contributions to the VOS program. For 2005, Malaysian best performance ships are as shown in Figure 4. This selection is based on the quantity, regularity and quality of weather observation data. MMD will continue with these awards to show its appreciation and encouragement to the ship personnel involved in this programme. Efforts are also constantly being taken by MMD to improve and upgrade the efficiency of port meteorological offices in serving the VOS program.

Figure 1: Yearly Malaysian VOS Logbook Observations 1974 - 2005

Figure 2: Malaysian VOS Real Time Performance From GTS Jan 2004 - Dec 2005

(Region bounded by latitude 5 S - 20 N and longitude 95 E - 130 E)

Figure 3: Appreciation Letters Issued To Best Performing Ships : Jan 2004 – Dec 2005

(Region Bounded By Latitude 5 S – 20 N and Longitude 95 E – 130 E)

Figure 4: Malaysian Best Performing Ships for 2005.