Conference Overview

The Tenth Asia-Oceania Meteorological Satellite Users’ Conference was held from 2-7 December, Melbourne, Australia.

In 2010 the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA), the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) organised the first Asia Oceania Meteorological Satellite Users’ Conference in Beijing, China. Since that first conference, conferences have been held annually in China (2010, 2014), Japan (2011, 2015), Korea (2012, 2016), Australia (2013), Russia (2017), and Indonesia (2018). India joined the AOMSUC community in 2017 and will host in the next round.

In June 2016 the Permanent Representatives of Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russian Federation and the Republic of Korea, together with the Secretary-General of WMO, signed the Memorandum on the Asia-Oceania Meteorological Satellite Users’ Conference (AOMSUC) during the sixty-eighth session of the WMO Executive Council in Geneva.

The 2016 Memorandum formalises the AOMSUC as a permanent mechanism for facilitating dialogue and improved collaboration among the space agencies and user communities of the Asia-Oceania region, and for enhancing the use of satellites for weather, climate and disaster mitigation services.

The conferences feature high quality oral and poster presentations, as well as panel discussions that address topical issues such as utilisation of satellite data in Weather Analysis and Forecasting, Climate and Environmental Monitoring, Numerical Weather Prediction and Disaster Monitoring. The conferences have proven very effective in:

• Promoting the importance of satellite observations and highlighting their utility;
• Advancing satellite remote sensing science by enabling information exchange between scientists from the Asia/Oceania region and focusing on regional issues;
• Providing a means for satellite operators to interact directly with the user community with respect to current and future satellite related activities and plans and respond to the requirements of those users; and
• Engaging young scientists entering the field.