A hundred years young

2008 marks the Bureau of Meteorology's centenary. Although conceived by the colonies during Federation, it wasn't until the first of January 1908 the Bureau started operations.

From those early days, with only a handful of staff, the Bureau has developed into an internationally significant science organisation that produces much more than weather forecasts and is helping Australians better understand the environmental challenges they face.

The power of observation

Right across the continent, its seas, skies and remote territories, Bureau volunteers, contractors, and staff work around the clock - using equipment as simple as rain gauges through to the latest satellite technology - to record the basic data on which the nation's meteorological forecasts and understanding are based.

Similarly the support staff and forecasters 'work 24/7' to provide Australians with services that not only cover weather, but also climate, water and the oceans.

From its early beginnings as a weather service, the Bureau has evolved to become the service that the nation depends upon for natural hazard warnings about severe weather, floods, fires and tsunami.

Every minute of every day, it is continuously observing, collecting and analysing vast amounts of quality-controlled data - ranging from land temperatures and rainfall to upper atmosphere winds and ozone content, and from ocean tides and salinity levels to currents and temperatures.

It is this capacity for managing vast amounts of information that has led to the Bureau becoming a trustee of a significant portion of the nation's geophysical data.

To this, since January 2007, has been added the responsibility for collecting, standardising and making available the water information so needed for national water management.

Predicting the future

Forecasters and researchers from the Bureau, as well as scientists from universities, CSIRO and international institutions, freely draw on these incomparable data sets as they seek to predict the weather and climate as well as improve the world's understanding of the environment.

For example, the Bureau's various specialist forecasters constantly draw on the vast array of information coming from sources as varied as weather balloons, satellites, rain gauges, barometers, thermometers, radars, and the measurements taken by ships and aircraft as well as those at hundreds of sites across Australia. They then predict the weather as well as sea surface and ocean conditions (such as waves, swells, currents, salinity levels and temperatures) for up to seven days.

The Bureau is also the nation's climate forecaster, reporting on the status of climate phenomena such as El Nino/La Nina and the Indian Ocean dipole, and issuing climate outlooks for coming months.

These many differing statements and forecasts are then distributed via radio, television, newspapers and the Internet to millions of Australians who use them to help plan their day-to-day or seasonal activities.

A global player

However, the Bureau's services and links are not restricted solely to Australia. Representing the Government, it is an active participant in the United Nation's World Meteorological Organisation, sharing its data and knowledge with the world, and working with other nations on major projects.

For example,

• It is part of an Australian team leading efforts to improve tsunami warning systems in the waters to our north from India to Hawaii;
• Its scientists are major contributors to the proceedings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; and
• Its experts are working with Pacific Island nations on critical projects ranging from disaster mitigation to climate change.

A research institute

For many people the Bureau's role as a leading international research and development institute is less well known. In fact, from the very early days of meteorological science in Australia, the Bureau has been at the forefront of much innovation that is now used internationally - from the use of upper air measurements through to the development of numerical weather prediction, now used as the basis behind most of the world's weather forecasts.

In September 2007, the Bureau's scientists expanded this tradition, partnering with CSIRO to form The Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research.

Time to celebrate

Now after a hundred years the Bureau is celebrating these many facets of its life. Activities planned across Australia include:

• The February launch of a specially commissioned history of the Bureau of Meteorology, "The Weather Watchers";
• The release in March of a special 300 page edition of the "Climate of Australia";
• Centenary celebrations around the time of World Meteorological Day in March; and
• Open days during Science Week in August.

And while on the first of January, most people make New Year Resolutions and recover from the previous night's festivities, for the Bureau it's work as usual and cause to reflect both on its legacy as well as the challenges and responsibilities of being an organisation on which so many Australians rely.