EMS Media Awards 2011

Exchange on how to improve communication of meteorological and climatological information between developers, users, stake holders and decision makers, and to the general public has been one of the central objectives of the EMS since its foundation in 1999.

To highlight outstanding examples and achievements three EMS Media awards have been established:

 

The Awards will be presented during the Media Session of the 11th EMS Annual Meeting and 10th European Conference on Applications of Meteorology (ECAM), in September 2011, in Berlin, Germany. The Media session will take place on Thursday, 15 September, from 08:30 to 13:00 in Room Cambridge.

EMS Outreach & Communication Award 2011

The EMS Outreach & Communication Award is given in recognition of projects that explore new and effective ways to communicate the science of meteorology, climatology and related fields to the general public. The projects may deal with the results or the consequences of science, and may also be targeted at a more specific audience.

The Select Committee is composed of six experts who agreed that two outstanding projects addressing different audiences deserve to be awarded. These two projects are the Mountain Wave Project and theWeather magazine. For both of them comprehensive documentation was provided, in this place only a short summary of both the projects is included.

theWeather Club

theWeather presents a novel and exciting way of communicating the science of meteorology and its impact on society to a general public. It relates weather to common activities and subjects such as culture, sport, politics, food, gardening, leisure and history and in this way tackles the challenges to bring the science of meteorology into the realm of people’s daily life. The timeliness and importance of the theWeather Club’s attempt to tackle the difficult subject of the interface between climate and weather can not be appreciated enough – this is a crucial issue in communicating climate change to any non-scientific audience. The photographic material is impressive and creates interest and awareness in weather and climate topics, stimulating a broad audience to enjoy the known’s and unknown’s within the science of meteorology. The magazine is printed on high grade 100% recycled paper.

To complement theWeather magazine, the website provides extra content and opportunities for members to participate in weather debates and discussions, join forums, post views, propose ideas, submit images and share weather observations. The editorial board is composed of meteorologists, journalists and a designer.

Mountain Wave Project TV-documentary “Rodeo in the Sky – research for greater flight safety”

The MWP being a scientific project focused on applications, deserves great merit for incorporating outreach activities as part of the project. The communication with the public uses a variety of different channels explaining the issues to a wider audience. Through TV-features, radio broadcasts, publications, posters and numerous articles in the print media, the MWP regularly draws attention to atmospheric phenomena.

The concept of the TV-documentary “Rodeo in the Sky – research for greater flight safety” is thrilling, moving, and educational, a very original and unusual combination. Including historical movie sequences of wave exploration of 80 years ago, as well as the images from the famous Jet Stream Project with the describing the “Monster Rotor” in the Sierra Nevada it links the activities of the MWP to earlier scientific initiatives and achievements.

EMS Broadcast Meteorologist Award 2011

The EMS Broadcast Meteorologist Award 2011 is presented to honour life achievement of an outstanding broadcast meteorologist. With appreciation for his long and fruitful professional career the award is given to Dieter Walch.

For many Germans the name "Dieter Walch" is closely related to the television weather forecast. Dieter has acted for more than 25 years as the leading German weather presenter in ZDF German National Television. He has studied Mathematics, Physics and Meteorology at the Free University of Berlin. After receiving his Master in Meteorology, he worked as a Flight-Meteorologist, before he joined the German Air Force Weather Service as assistant professor. During this time the German National Television offered him the position of a TV-Meteorologist. He has also written books about Meteorology, TV-Meteorology and Climate.

TV Weather Forecast 2011 Trophy Award

An outstanding video clip of a weather forecast is distinguished through the TV Weather Forecast Award. The trophy this year goes to broadcast meteorologist Jean Byrne. She is a Meteorologist with Met Eireann, the National Meteorological Service of Ireland, since 1989. Initially employed as a Meteorological Officer, Jean went on to study Mathematical Sciences in Trinity College, Dublin, from which she graduated with honours in 1989.

Following promotion to Meteorologist, Jean was assigned to the Aviation Office OF Met Eireann in Shannon Airport for Training in Aviation Meteorology. Subsequently she was assigned to the Research Division of Met Eireann. From there, she moved to her present position as a weather forecaster in General Forecasting Division and, in 1996, was selected to be a Broadcast Meteorologist with RTE, the National Television Broadcaster of Ireland. Since then, Jean Byrne works a roster of duties in the General Forecasting Division, Met Eireann, as well as in RTE.

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