The Vaisala Group, the Finnish producer of electronic measuring equipment, will be delivering 3.7 million euros worth of new-technology upper-air observation systems to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. The systems will make it possible to produce more accurate weather observations in Australia.

Hundreds of Vaisala radiosonds that collect meteorological information about the upper atmosphere with the assistance of a weather balloon are sent daily into the air throughout the world. The radiosonds measure the air's temperature, moisture and pressure and the direction and speed of the wind up to a height of 30 kilometres. During the ascent the radiosonds send the information they collect to equipment down on Earth which processes the information and produces a weather message from it.

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology is now using a system produced by Vaisala that will be replaced by a newer product generation. The new system will guarantee compatibility with Vaisala's future weather observation equipment. It will, therefore, be possible to use it well into the next decade. The weather observation information is used not only for forecasts but also for doing research into the climate. So information about changes in the weather and climate will be obtained over the long term.

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology is one of the world's biggest meteorological weather observation networks. Cooperation between the bureau and Vaisala has been going on for a long time and has strengthened in recent years.

>> www.vaisala.com

A radiosond being sent to collect information about the upper atmosphere.