Meteorology Seychelles

[Christina Smith]

Atthe University of Delaware, Shuai Wang, an assistant professor of meteorology and climate science in the Department of Geography and Spatial Sciences, is trying to help island and coastal communities do just that, as he most recently presented to residents of Seychelles, an island nation in the Indian Ocean, at a workshop hosted by the International Monetary Fund.

Wang explained that compound risks occur when a single extreme weather event, such as an intense coastal storm, or multiple sequential events, like sea level rise, interact and compound the negative effects to a coastal community or island nation.

Having arrived at UD in August of 2023, Wang was trained as a meteorologist, received his doctorate from the Imperial College London in the United Kingdom and went on to earn his postdoctoral degree at Princeton University.

Wang served as a technical assistant at the workshop provided by the International Monetary Fund. The workshop was required by the Central Bank of Seychelles to look at residential stress tests and a climate risk analysis. Wang said sea-level rise, on top of an extreme weather event such as a hurricane that makes landfall, would increase the water level and pose an extreme threat to the nation.

When it comes to this type of climate work, Wang said it is important to bridge the gap between scientists and end users. This workshop helped him to get a much better understanding of the bigger picture issues facing the residents of the Seychelles. Having previously provided data for a workshop in the Maldives, Wang enjoyed the opportunity to be more involved in this latest workshop.

He believes that there is an opportunity for more collaboration between the economic and meteorological field and said there are a few students in his classes that actually switched directly from economics to studying meteorology.

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(Seychelles News Agency) - Seychelles is being used as the base for an Earth observation programme using stratospheric super pressure balloons led by the French national scientific research centre, CNES.

A group of 60 researchers from CNES are in Seychelles undertaking the study called 'Strateole 2' in collaboration with the Seychelles Meteorological Authority. The study comes under the umbrella of the World Meteorological Organisation's SPARC programme, or Stratosphere-troposphere Processes And their Role in Climate.

The researchers are using a fleet of 20 long-duration balloons to study the equatorial stratosphere for several months. Among the data that the pressurized balloons will collect are several measurements intended for the study of water vapour in the stratosphere and its impacts on climate and meteorology.

"We are very happy to be taking part in this study as it is not only one that is quite important on the international scene, but it will also help us locally when we are making our own projections," said SMA's chief executive, Vincent Amelie.

The balloon launch site was chosen to provide the best possible coverage of the intertropical zone and to optimize flight duration. The international airport of Seychelles, an archipelago in the western Indian Ocean, was identified as the site affording the best conditions.

"While the benefits will not be apparent immediately, we will be able to better advise policy and decision-makers on matters needing the data collected, such as the best locations to build dams as well predict when draughts may happen," said Amelie.

This major collection about the oceans and Polar exploration was bequeathed by Dr. William Speirs Bruce, explorer and oceanographer (1867-1921). Bruce studied at the Granton Marine Station and at the University of Edinburgh, and took part in numerous expeditions looking at the meteorology, botany and zoology of the Polar regions. In 1902, Bruce organised and led the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition to the Weddell Sea, returning home in 1904. This expedition took some of the earliest cine film of Antarctica.

The collection contains some 1,000 volumes, 2,000-3,000 pamphlets and offprints, and 30 albums of pictures and news cuttings, all on oceanography or Arctic and Antarctic exploration. The volumes include famous early 19th century travel accounts, annotated research publications and scientific reports.

The manuscript part of the collection includes notebooks, annotated typescripts, postcards, photographs, maps, diaries, correspondence and lists of specimens. Topics include the 'Balaena', fish and fisheries, Franz Josef Land, the Jackson-Harmsworth Expedition, meteorology, oceanography, Repulse Bay, the Seychelles, soundings, South Georgia, Spitzbergen, and whaling. These items are at Gen. 1646-1669. Detailed information is available in the Centre for Research Collections; see Handlist H72.

Related materials include a volume of newspaper cuttings relating to the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition at Gen.556, and a set of album material from the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition at Gen. 1670-1696. The collection complements the Challenger Expedition records and the Christian Salvesen archive in its depiction of travel and life across the polar oceans.

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