The 9th "Vilho Väisälä" Prize for the development and refinement of observation tools and methods in developing countries,
a distinction awarded every two years by the Executive Council of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO ), was awarded to a team of Moroccan experts from the General Directorate of Meteorology (DGM).
This 9th prize ''creasing work relating to the development and use of instruments and observation methods'' was awarded to DGM experts for their work entitled ''Unified AWS Data Collection, Integration, and Processing Systems (UNI-AWS DCIPS)'', published as a project report by the Meteorology Branch.
Composed of Chemseddine El Garrai, Abdelaziz Ait Hra, Youssef Darrari, and Mrs. Rabia Merrouchi, the Moroccan team was awarded this prize during the 75th session of the WMO Executive Council (20 to 24 June), at which participated the Director-General of Metrology, Omar Chafki, member of the said council since 2019.
These Moroccan experts from the DGM thus become the first winners of this prize on a continental scale and in the Arab world.
The Vilho Väisälä Prize for the Development and Implementation of Instruments and Methods of Observation in Developing Countries aims to encourage and stimulate capacity development in instruments and methods of observation for the WMO Integrated Global Observing System (WIGOS) in developing countries.
It is awarded to an ''exceptional'' article published in a scientific journal, or to an ''important'' technical report, a project report or a summary of a doctoral or master's thesis successfully defended, according to specific criteria.
These criteria include the contribution of the submitted work to the long-term stability and reliability of meteorological and related environmental observations in developing countries, the relevance of this work for observing systems in developing countries, in addition to its relevance to, and impact on, WMO programs and key priority areas.
During this session of the WMO Executive Council, Chafki was appointed as the member representing Africa on the “Policy Advisory Committee”.
This Committee advises the Executive Council on any matter relating to WMO strategy and policy that the latter submits to it.