VOS Report for 2016	Country =	Argentina	
		Prepared by=	Natalí G. Aranda	
	
	a.	Programme description:	
	Category	No. of ships at 
31 Dec 2016	Recruitments in 2016	De-recruitments
In 2016	Comments	
	Selected					
	Selected AWS					
	VOSClim					
	VOSClim AWS					
	Supplementary					
	Supplementary AWS					
	Auxiliary					
	Auxiliary AWS	2	1		The AWS which are in the ships measure air temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, radiation, wind direction and speed. 	
	Other					
	National VOS Total	2	 			
						
	National VOS Target						
	National VOSClim Target 						
							
	b.	Data management:	
	Total number of ship observations (BBXX) distributed on the GTS in 2016		
	Dates when VOS data submitted to the GCCs in 2016		

	c.	Shipboard Automatic Weather System	
	Type	No. of ships at  31 Dec 2016	Manual Input
Yes / No	Method of Comms	Year1 Plans	
	Campbell Scientific	2	Yes	Inmarsat	Every 6 hours, the ship sends the meteorological information to the NWS Argentina.	

						

			

	d.	Electronic logbooks: (TurboWin, SEAS, OBSJMA)	
	Software & version	No. of ships at 
 31 Dec 2016	Implementation plans	
	Turbowin	2	The software haven´t used yet.  Currently, a member of the ship sends the AWS’s dates to the SMN by mail.	

				

				

e.	Standard Meteorological Equipment:  (Types and Settings)	
Equipment Type / Element	Manual Instrumentation	AWS Instrumentation	
Barometer

		CS100
Setra. Model 278	
		10  mts over the mean sea level	
Default national setting	Station Level or Mean Sea Level	Station Level or Mean Sea Level	
Barograph			
			
Default national setting	Station Level or Mean Sea Level	Station Level or Mean Sea Level	
Thermometers			
			
Temperature and humidity 		HC2S3	
			
Wind Speed		05108-L	
			
Wind Direction		05108-L	
			
Radiation

		Pyranometer  LP02	

f. 	PMO ship visit activities:  (if a visit is for dual purposes, include all purposes)	
Activity	Manual Ship 	AWS
Ship	Comment	
Routine VOS inspections		2	The inspectors from the NWS Argentina, visited two ships: GC Tango and GC Garcia. They checked the installation of AWS and maintained those stations.  During the visit, the inspectors had the possibility to explain how to maintain the instruments.
In both ships that the NWS visited the AWS can only measure temperature, humidity, radiation, atmospheric pressure, speed wind and direction wind. 	
VOS recruitment visits		2	The NWS met with Prefectura Naval Argentina (PNA) ships’s crew. They were friendly and willing to learn about meteorological and marine observations. 	
VOS de-recruitment visits				
VOS courtesy or foreign visits				
Total visits to VOS	2		
Routine ASAP inspections				
ASAP recruitment visits				
ASAP de-recruitment visits				
ASAP courtesy visits				
Total visits to ASAP				
Routine SOOP visits				
SOOP recruitment visits				
SOOP de-recruitment visits				
SOOP courtesy visits				
Total visits to SOOP				
Visits in support of DBCP (drifting buoys)				
Visits in support of Argo (profiling floats)				
Total visits to other programs				
Total visits by national PMOs	2	Sum of all ship visits (VOS + ASAP + SOOP) + visits to other program (DBCP + Argo)	
				
g.	Major challenges and difficulties:	
The VOS program in Argentina was been relaunch the last year. For different reasons, Argentina didn´t recruit ships for a long time so we don’t have enough data  over the sea. Our aim is demonstrate why is important to involved in the program VOS. 
 We are very optimistic with the program VOS but we don’t have all the resources economics and human for implementing the program immediately. 
The PNA have two ships which have been included in the program VOS. Both ships have an automatic weather station (Campbell Scientific). Currently, we are working in the transmission of the information to the SMN in the correct format.
The greatest challenge is recruit ships because there are a few ships that have meteorological instruments and the other problem is how to send the information to the SMN  because of the cost .

h.	Research / development / testing:	

		
i.	Other comments	
We expect that the ARA Libertad, the Navy’s school vessel, could be part of VOS. Furthermore we want to be part of the VOS DONATION PROGRAMME. The PNA recommend us ships where could install the buoy and we could use it as an AWS.

Also, we hope that the recruited ship use the turbowin. We think is very important to train and incentive the marine users in the meteorological and marine observations and show them why are important the meteorological and marine data.

 Finally, other aim for this year is appoint port meteorological officers. The new Port Meteorological Officers will contribute to active the VOS program, for example, they will recruit more ships.