The Professor Vilho Väisälä Award
The Professor Vilho Väisälä Award
was established in 1985. It is administered by the World Meteorological
Organization (WMO) and awarded to stimulate interest in meteorological research
involving meteorological observation methods and instruments. The Professor
Vilho Väisälä Award recognizes outstanding research papers involving
meteorological observation methods and instruments. It comprises cash, a medal
and a diploma.
The first Professor Vilho Väisälä
Award presentation ceremony took place in 1986 at the Vaisala headquarters in
Vantaa. The presentation of the very first award
coincided with the 50th anniversary of the founding of Vaisala Oy. Since 1986, the call for papers eligible for the
Professor Vilho Väisälä Award has been made annually
to the permanent representatives of the WMO in each country.
New Professor Vilho Väisälä Award
In 2004 the WMO Executive Council decided to establish a
second Professor Vilho Väisälä Award. The main focus of this new award is
meteorological instrument work in developing countries and countries with
economies in transition. At the same time, the WMO Executive Council adopted new
guidelines for granting the Professor Vilho Väisälä Awards.
Both awards are granted biannually in connection with the WMO
TECO/METEOREX conference and carry a cash prize of US$ 10,000.
More information on the awards can be found at the WMO website.
The award winners are as follows:
2006 (1st Award, new)
Messrs John
Nash, Richard Smout and Mark Smees - all three from the United Kingdom Met
Office - and Mr Carl Bower of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration in USA. The scientists were awarded for their joint
paper entitled: "Dar-es-Salaam demonstration test of IMS 1600 Integrated
Upper-air System, Dar-es-Salaam, 18-30 October 2004".
2005
(20th Award)
Professor Joseph P. Pichamuthu, at M.
Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology, Bangalore. The award was made in
recognition of his work in the area of meteorological optical range
(MOR)–fundamental in the safe landing of aircraft.
2004 (19th
Award)
Dr. Iwan Holleman and Hans Beekhuis of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological
Institute (KNMI), Netherlands
"Analysis and Correction of dual PRF
Velocity Data"
2003 (18th Award)
Dr. UrsBaltensperger,
Dr. Martin Gysel and Dr. Ernest Weingartner of the Paul Scherrer
Institute, Switzerland
“Hygroscopicity of Aerosol Particles at Low
Temperatures. New Low-Temperature H-TDMA Instrument: Setup and
First Applications”
2002 (17th Award)
Dr. Rolf Philipona of
the Physikalisch-Meteorologisches Observatorium Davos,
World Radiation Center (PMOD/WRC), Switzerland
“Sky-scanning Radiometer
for Absolute Measurements of Atmospheric Long-wave Radiation”
2001 (16th Award)
Dr. Ulrich Görsdorfand
and Mr. Volker Lehman of the German Weather Service
“Enhanced Accuracy
of RASS-Measured Temperatures Due to an Improved Range Correction”
2000 (15th
Award)
Dr. Edgeworth
Westwater, Dr. Yong Han, Mr. Jack Sinder, Dr.
James Churnside, Dr. Joseph Shaw, Mr. Michael Falls,
Dr. Charles Long, Dr. Thomas Ackerman, Dr. Kenneth Gage, Mr. Warner Acklund and Dr. Anthony Riddle, Pilot Radiation Observation
Experiment (PROBE)
“Ground-Based Remote Sensor Observations during PROBE
in the Tropical Western Pacific”
1999 (14th Award)
Dr. Barry Coodison and Mr. Paul Louie, Canadian Climate Centre, Dr.
Daqing Yang, (China) University of Alaska,
USA
”WMO Solid Precipitation Measurement Intercomparison – Final Report”
1998 (13th Award)
M.S. Golubev, D.A. Konovalov, A. Yu.
Simonenko, State Hydrological Institute, Russian
Federation, Yu.V. Tovmach,
Saint Petersburg State Pedagogical University, Russian
Federation
“Estimation of Errors in Measurement of precipitation by the
Valdai Monitoring System
(VMS)”
1997 (12th Award)
Dr. Bruce W.
Forgan, Australian Bureau of Meteorology, Melbourne,
Australia
“New Calibration Method for Reference and Field Pyranometers”
1996 (11th Award)
Dr. Dusan S. Zrnic, National Severe
Storms Laboratory, Norman, Oklahoma, USA;
Dr. Alexander Ryzhkov, Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies at the University of
Oklahoma, USA
“Precipitation and Attenuation Measurements at a 10 cm
Wavelength”
1995 (10th Award)
Dr. Anthony
C.L. Lee, UK Meteorological Office, Bracknell,
UK
“Filtering, Sampling and Information Content within Satellite-Derived
Multispectral of Mixed-Resolution
Imagery”
1994 (9th Award)
Dr. Dian J.
Gaffen, National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, MD, USA
“Historical Changes in Radiosonde Instruments and Practices”
1993 (8th Award)
Dr. J.P. van
derMeulen, The Royal Netherlands Meteorological
Institute (KNMI), De Bilt, Netherlands
“The WMO
Automatic Digital Barometer Intercomparison”
1992 (7th Award)
Dr. D.J.
Griggs, Mr. D.W. Jones, Mr. M. Ouldridge, Mr.
W.R. Sparks, UK Meteorological Office, Bracknell,
UK
“The First WMO Intercomparison of Visibility
Measurements”
1991 (6th Award)
Mr. Malcolm
Kitchen, UK Meteorological Office, Bracknell,
UK
“The Comparison of the Performance of Upper-Air Stations in the Global
Observing Network”
1990 (5th
Award)
Dr. Peter May, Bureau of Meteorology,
Melbourne, Australia; Dr. Richard Strauch, National
Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, Boulder, Colorado, USA; Mr. Kenneth
Moran, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, Boulder, Colorado,
USA
“The Accuracy of RASS Temperature Measurements”
1989 (4th Award)
Dr. John
Nash, UK Meteorological Office, Bracknell, UK; Dr.
Francis J Schmidlin, National Oceanic &
Atmospheric Administration, Boulder, Colorado, USA
“WMO International
Radiosonde Comparisons (UK 1984, USA
1985)”
1988 (3rd Award)
Prof. Dietrich
Sonntag, German Weather Service, Potsdam, East
Germany,
“WMO Assman
Aspiration PsychrometerIntercomparison”
1987 (2nd Award)
Dr. Boris Sevruk, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Department of
Geography ETH, Hydrology Section, Zurich, Switzerland
“Towards the
Universal Precipitation Gauge of the Future”
1986 (1st Award)
Mr. C.G.
Collier, Assistant Director of the UK Meteorological Office, Bracknell, UK “Accuracy of Rainfall Estimates by
Radar”