The following tools and resources were compiled from different sources to aid WMO Members in improving their agrometeorological bulletins and increasing their knowledge of available agrometeorological-related resources.
Climate Forecasts | Data Management | Dissemination | Drought | Feedback | Forestry/Fire | GIS | GRADS | Irrigation/Drainage | Natural Disasters | Observations | Online Training | Phenology | Plant/Animal Health | Rainfall Monitoring | Remote Sensing | Soil Erosion | Statistics | Weather/Climate Data
Climate Forecasts and Agriculture
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- Applications of Climate Forecasts for Agriculture (PDF) Proceedings of an Expert Group Meeting for Africa held 9-13 December 2002 in Banjul, Gambia
Dissemination: Selected Papers
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- An Expert Team Meeting on Software for Agroclimatic Data Management was held in Washington, D.C., USA in October 2000 to assess the current status of software for agroclimatic data management and determine the future needs for more efficient management of agroclimatic data to foster improved agroclimatic applications. Participants in the meeting discussed climatic data management, crop and soil data management, remotely sensed data management and integrated packages.
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- Free Software for Agroclimatic Data Management — Over 35 links of free software
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- Early Warning Systems for Drought Preparedness and Drought Management (PDF) Proceedings from an WMO Expert Team Meeting in September 5-7 2000 in Lisbon, Portugal
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- Basics of Drought Planning: 10 Step Process (PDF) National Drought Mitigation Center, Nebraska, USA
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- Inter-Regional Workshop on Indices and Early Warning Systems for Drought December 8-11, 2009 in Lincoln, USA
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- WMO/UNISDR Expert Meeting on Agricultural Drought Indices June 2-4, 2010 in Murcia, Spain
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- Consultation Meeting on the Proposed Integrated Drought Management Programme November 15-16, 2010 in Geneva, Switzerland
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- Global Drought Monitor from UCL Department of Space and Climate Physics
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- Famine Early Warning Systems Network from USAID
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- North American Drought Monitor Page National Climatic Data Center, Asheville, NC, USA
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- NLDAS Drought Monitor Web Site North American Land Data Assimilation System
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- European Drought Observatory (EDO) from European Commission Joint Research Center
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- Southwest Asia Drought Monitor Drought monitor of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Western India
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- Experimental African Drought Monitor (ADM) for Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, and Tanzania
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- National Drought Mitigation Center in Lincoln, NE provides some excellent resources (see the following links) on drought definition, planning, monitoring, and mitigation.
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- Canadian Drought Watch Web Page Produced by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, provides articles on drought related topics such as crops, livestock, pasture, pest management, and water.
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- Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC) The GFMC is an activity of the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) and is hosted by the University of Freiburg, Germany. Selected GFMC web sited are listed below.
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- GFMC Wildland Fire Early Warning Portal Links to global, regional, and national fire weather forecasts and early warning systems.
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- International Forest Fire News (IFFN) IFFN is an activity of the Joint FAO/ECE/ILO Committee on Forest Technology, Management and Training, and the GFMC, in cooperation with the many other co-sponsors and partners. There is an archive of the semi-annual reports back to 1998 and country reports back to 1990.
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- Global Forest Resources Assessment Portal This Remote Sensing Survey portal provides access to global sample tiles and it enables the search, display and download of tile information, associated satellite imagery and auxiliary data. Coordinated by FAO with USGS, EC-JRC, Jena University, and South Dakota State University as partners.
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- Arcview 3.1 Tutorial (HTML) from U.S. National Weather Service
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- GEO Data Portal – access to UNEP’s online database of over 450 different parameters
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- EU COST 719 Official Web Page – The Use of GIS in Climatology and Meteorology Links to several workshops with online presentations
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- Online AWIPS Map Database A listing of over 20 datasets and links for the US and North America from the U.S. National Weather Service
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- USGS GIS Tutorials Tutorials from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) on Arcview, ArcviewIMS, ARC/INFO, GRASS, and IDRISI
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- Useful GIS and Remote Sensing Links from Taylor & Francis GIS publishers
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- Free ArcExplorer Software Free shapefile viewer from ESRI
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- ArcExplorer Web Make an online map from ESRI
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- ARCUSER Magazine Link to website of ArcUser Magazine published by ESRI. Contains current issues, articles, and an archive of previous issues.
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- ARCNEWS Newsletter Link to website of ArcNews Newsletter publsihed by ESRI. Contains current issues, articles, and an archive of previous issues.
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- Google Earth Software Free Viewer and Search software of sateillite imagery, maps, and other geographic information for the world
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- EarthBrowser Software 3D model of the earth with weather and geological information. Free Demo version available but full version must be purchased.
GrADS (Grid Analysis and Display System)
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- GrADS Home Page Free Analytical Software from the Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies (COLA) Maryland, USA
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- GrADS Tutorial from COLA
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- GrADS Projects (ZIP) from WMO Training Seminar on IT
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- GrADS Station Data (HTML) Information on the structure, creation, and use of station data in GrADS
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- International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID) Home Page The ICID is a scientific and technical international NGO dedicated to enhancing the worldwide supply of food and fibre by improving water and land management and the productivity of irrigated and drained lands through appropriate management practices.
Natural Disasters and Agriculture
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- WMO CAgM Meeting on Impacts of Climate/Change Variability and Natural Disasters Commission for Agricultural Meteorology (CAgM) Implementation and Coordination Meeting held in New Zealand in February 2005. Links to meeting reports and presentations.
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- WMO CAgM Expert Team on Reducing the Impact of Natural Disasters and Mitigation of Extreme Events in Agriculture, Rangelands, Forestry, and Fisheries Commission for Agricultural Meteorology (CAgM) Expert Team Meeting held in China in February 2004. Link to meeting report.
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- WMO’s Natural Disaster Prevention and Migitation (DPM) Programme Web Page Information on WMO’s activities in natural disaster risk reduction and mitigation.
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- ECLAC Handbook for Estimating the Socio-economic and Environmental Effects of Disasters The UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has developed a disaster assessment methodology that is summarized in this handbook. It contains a section on assessments of disaster impacts in agriculture. A Spanish version of the handbook is also available.
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- Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) CRED maintains the International Disaster Database, a Bibliography database, and a current and archive listing of disasters of the week.
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- CRED International Disaster Database provides methodologically-compiled data on global disaster occurrence and impact and is maintained by CRED.
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- Web Portal on Automatic Weather Stations: The Instruments and Methods of Observation Programme (IMOP) of the World Weather Watch (WWW) of the WMO provides an excellent web portal on the Development, Maintenance and Operation of Instruments, Observing Methods and Automatic Weather Stations. With over 50 links, topics include: Operational Guides & Guidelines, Siting and Exposure, Maintenance & Repairs, Methods of Observation, Algorithms & Procedures, Quality Assurance / Quality Control, Instruments Intercomparisons, New Sensor Developments, Papers & Presentations (presented at Conferences), Training Materials, and IMOP Reports.
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- Virtual Academy for the Semi-Arid Tropics (VASAT) – Learning Resources The VASAT learning resources has several modules on agriculture (Drought, Specific Crops, Nutrients & Crop Health) , Livestock (Drought), and Crop-Weather Relationships.
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- COMET METED Online Training Modules UCAR’s COMET website has a METED section with over 100 online modules ranging over 17 topics. Registration is free. Below are some modules of particular to agrometeorologists.
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- How a corn plant develops (HTML) Iowa State University, Cooperative Extnesion Service, Special Report No. 48. June 1993.
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- How a soybean plant develops (HTML) Iowa State University, Cooperative Extension Service, Special Report No. 53. March 1994.
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- How a sorghum plant develops (PDF) Kansas State University. January 1993.
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- Growth and Development Guide for Spring Barley provided by the University of Minnesota Extension Service. 1995.
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- Growth and Development Guide for Spring Wheat provided by the University of Minnesota Extension Service. 1995.
Plant And Animal Diseases/Health
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- PLASMO Model Online The PLASMO model simulates grapevine downy mildew biological cycle on the basis of agrometeorological parameters and predicts the best timing for fungicide treatments. Provided by the Italian Institute of Biometeorology (IBIMET – Bologna).
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- Web-Blight – International Collaboration on Information and Decision Support for Potato Late Blight Provides information and decision support tools and software on Potato Late Blight for several Scandanavian countries, the Baltic States, and Poland.
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- African Precipitation Products NOAA’s Climate Prediciton Center (CPC) provides many precipiation products at many timescales (7-day, 30-day, 90-day, 180-day)
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- African Weekly Monsoon Update CPC provides a weekly update of the African monsoons with current conditions and forecasts.
Remote Sensing, GIS, and Satellites
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- Satellite Remote Sensing and GIS Applications in Agricultural Meteorology (PDF) Proceedings of a Training Workshop held 7-11 July 2003 in Dehra Dun, India
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- WMO-CGMS Virtual Laboratory for Education and Training in Satellite Meteorology This site provides many teaching and educational satellite resources from several “centres of excellence.”
Soil Erosion / Land Degradation
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- Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) Handbook (PDF) PDF version of USDA’s Agricultural Handbook 703 – Predicting Soil Erosion by Water: A Guide to Conservation Planning With the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE). Link provided by the US Department of the Interior, Office of Technology Transfer.
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- Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) Software The WEPP model is a process-based, distributed parameter, continuous simulation, erosion prediction model for use on personal computers running Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP. This link is provided by Purdue University.
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- Wind Erosion Research Unit This USDA-ARS web site provides an several links on wind erosion including Wind Erosion Simulation Models (WEPS).
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- The Statistical Service Center (SSC) of the University of Reading, United Kingdom provides several excellent software packages, tutorials, and guides for statistical analysis with an emphasis on climatic data.
- INSTAT Statistical software — General statistical package which is simple enough to teach statistical ideas, yet powerful enough for rigourous data analysis. INSTAT is free for individual, non-commercial purposes, but there is a cost for all other purposes.
- Excel for Statistics — A SSC Excel add-in along with tutorials, examples, booklets, guides, macros help, training courses, and other Excel statistics recources.
- Statistics and Participation — Several papers and workshop information concerning “Bridging the gap between statistics and participatory methods”
- Index of Resources for Statistical Analysis and Training — An index of the SSC Resources
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- List of Free Climate and Weather Datasets from UCAR (University Corporation of Atmospheric Research
- Free Online Sources of Historical U.S. WeatherData from the National Drought Mitigation Center (University of Nebraska)