Roshydromet

Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring of Russia (Roshydromet) is a federal executive body under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation, which performs the functions of managing state property and providing state services in the field of hydrometeorology and related fields, monitoring the environment, its pollution, state supervision of work on active effects on meteorological and other geophysical processes. Reports to the Government of the Russian Federation. The Regulation on the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (Roshydromet) was approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of July 23, 2004 No. 372, as amended on December 14, 2006 and May 29, November 7, 2008.

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Functions

The main functions of Roshydromet:

• state supervision of work on active impact on meteorological and other geophysical processes in the territory of the Russian Federation;
• licensing of certain activities assigned to the competence of the Service in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation;
• State accounting of surface water and maintenance of the State water cadastre for surface water bodies;
• Maintenance of the Unified State Data Fund on the State of the Natural Environment, its Pollution,
• formation and maintenance of state observation network, including organization and termination of activities of stationary and mobile observation points, determination of their location, state monitoring of atmospheric air.

Modernization and technical re-equipment of Roshydromet

Supercomputer Roshydromet

Main article: Roshydromet supercomputer

2015-2019: Roshydromet-2 project

In 2014, the continuation of the project was approved - "Modernization and technical re-equipment of Roshydromet organizations and institutions" (Roshydromet-2 project), "designed for the period until 2019. As before, it will be carried out with the borrowed funds of^[1]). The total cost of the project, including the modernization of surveillance networks and the "strengthening of ICT infrastructure," was estimated at $139.5 million.

2009-2014: Roshydromet-1 project

In 2009-2014 a large-scale project "Modernization and technical re-equipment of institutions and organizations of Roshydromet" (Roshydromet-1) was implemented.

Financing

Under the Roshydromet-1 project, a loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), which is part of the group, in the World Bank amount of $80 million was raised. Of these, more than $45 million was planned to be spent on the modernization of the computing archival complex and more than $40 million on the modernization of surveillance networks. From the side Russia , the co-financing of the project was provided in the amount of $53.3 million, which during the project was increased to $100 million^[2]

For many years of modernization, Roshydromet attracts funds from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development

Audit of the Accounts Chamber

• In September 2011 , the Accounts Chamber announced the results of the audit of the use of the IBRD loan for the modernization of Roshydromet. According to the auditors, technical solutions were not sufficiently developed at the stage of preparation of the project, which led to an increase in the volume of services, an expansion of the range of equipment supplied and, as a result, an increase in the cost of the project by 35%, as well as the timing of its implementation. Also, at the time of this inspection, equipment in the amount of 29 million rubles was not installed. The Accounts Chamber noted the need to increase the efficiency of managing similar projects.

• In August 2015, the Accounts Chamber reported on the results of the audit of the effectiveness of public services and work in the field of hydrometeorology in 2013-2015. According to auditors, during the period under review, Roshydromet did not effectively implement new methods of forecasting and automation of observations. Details on the link.

Project Results

In August 2015, TAdviser was told in Roshydromet about the results of the Roshydromet-1 project. The federal service noted that one of the important areas of this project was the modernization of meteorological, aerological and hydrological networks, the communication system, prognostic units and the reference base of institutions.

The activities carried out within the framework of the Roshydromet-1 project made it possible to select and develop standard technological solutions in systems for observing, collecting and disseminating hydrometeorological information, systems for preparing forecasts for the development of hydrometeorological processes, modernize centers that provide numerical calculations of weather forecasts and assessment of climate change, as well as institutions that maintain the Unified State Fund for Hydrometeorological Data, noted in Roshydromet.

The federal service cited TAdviser data that during the Roshydromet-1 project, a total of about 2,500 pieces of equipment were delivered and installed on the hydrometeorological observation network (about 100 institutions). Balloons modernized meteorological stations: 1,627 automated complexes were delivered to them in 5 out of 30 parameters, as well as devices that meet the requirements of the World Meteorological Organization, providing for the collection, primary processing, accumulation and transfer of measurement results.

Equipment was also installed for the modernization of the communication system at the stations, and primarily at hard-to-reach and radiating ones. In order to develop the State observation network, 310 automatic meteorological stations (AMS) are being installed in areas where weather observations are essential for the detection and forecasting of hazards and the rehabilitation of previously closed and mothballed stations.

In addition, 19 actinometric stations are equipped with solar radiation measurements and long series of observations, modern equipment and solar radiation flow detection devices.

As part of the project, automated hydrological networks were created and put into operation in the priority basins of the river. Ussuri (64 hydrological posts), the river. Kuban (77 posts), the river. Oka (21 posts).

64 aerological stations of the atmospheric aerological radiosonding network were modernized by replacing part of the aerological complexes, including 6 aerological stations were depreserved.

The project also carried out activities related to the modernization of the World Meteorological Center (MMC) in Moscow and data storage and archiving facilities in Obninsk, regional meteorological centers (RSMC) in Novosibirsk and Khabarovsk and ICRD at the Main Geophysical Observatory (GGO) in St. Petersburg, communication and data transmission systems.

Part of the work within the framework of Roshydromet-1 concerned high-performance computing systems. A computing complex with a peak capacity of 27 Tflops was installed at GVC Roshydromet. In the RSMC in Novosibirsk and in Khabarovsk, computer systems with a peak capacity of 660 Gflops were installed.

Four supercomputer complexes were also put into full operational operation at the World Meteorological Center of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in Moscow, at the regional meteorological centers of the WMO in Novosibirsk and Khabarovsk, at the Main Geophysical Observatory in St. Petersburg. Are they being used for research, testing and pilot work to introduce new models and forecasting methods? they say in Roshydromet.

Another project within the framework of Roshydromet-1 was the modernization of the Roshydromet data archiving system, operating on the basis of the All-Russian Research Institute of Hydrometeorological Information - the World Data Center (VNIIGMI-MDC) in Obninsk, the federal service says. According to representatives of Roshydromet, a modern computerized data archive was created, high-performance servers, software and devices with a large amount of memory were installed for storing data and operating operational archives, as well as the operation of a modern automated library and automatic and semi-automatic devices for storing information on paper and magnetic media and much more.

In turn, for the preparation and holding of the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi in 2014, 4 automated meteorological complexes (AMC) and 7 AMC were installed and operated online.

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