The contract for the supply of 30 new state-of-the-art automatic weather stations, as part of the implementation of the AEGIS program, was signed today by the Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, Vassilis Kikilias, at an event held at the premises of the National Meteorological Service. At the same time, by the end of February, the contract for the supply of 7 meteorological radars is expected to have been signed.

The financing of the two projects will be done by the Recovery and Resilience Fund 2.0 and amounts to a total of 36.2 million. Euro.

“The 30 meteorological stations that we are now supplying under contract through AEGIS are the most striking proof of the modernization of the state. This means, obviously, that our scientists have more weapons in their quiver, but mainly that this is done to protect our fellow citizens. And that’s where it all ends,” said Mr. Kikilias and added: “The huge investment made by the government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis, through AEGIS, for Canadair, for helicopters, for 1,200 fire engines, for sensors, cameras, drones, has 30 weather stations and next week radars which are signed ».

As the minister said, this is “a constant request of scientists for 20 years now” in order to be able to contribute from their side to timely and correct forecasting and pointed out that the weather stations and radars are expected in 16 and 17 months respectively.

Then the minister referred to the progress of the implementation of the AEGIS program, stressing that within 12 calendar months they managed to activate AEGIS, the most important, as he said, civil protection program in the history of the country, worth 2.1 billion euros, while underlining that the supply of new, modern meteorological equipment, for which, there is a lot of talk in the scientific community, it was an “irrelevant need”, since the last time something like this was implemented – such as he said, -“unsuccessfully” he was at the 2004 Olympic Games. information society, a very important competition which was successful”, noted Mr. Kikilias pointing out that modernization of the country and the state means exactly this: “To have new equipment and tools, obviously the service of science, but mainly of our fellow citizens. Why do we do all this? To have the means to protect human lives. It is a huge need and excessive in anything of micro-political or micro-party utility, to be able to have all these state-of-the-art means to protect our fellow citizens.”

As he said, EMY and the experts who made the technical specifications of the project have determined where these weather stations will be placed, so that there is the corresponding information that can be used by the scientists of the Risk Assessment Committee and for issuing messages of 112.

“We work and invest in prevention. We use new technology to protect our fellow citizens. That’s where this investment is going,” the minister underlined.

Regarding the staff shortages at the EMY, which were mentioned in his speech by the director of the Meteorological Center of the EMY, Thodoris Kolidas, the minister emphasized: “If the Greek state did not foresee in the past years that we would have the staff required in the EMY the scientific, in order to be able to implement and do the work with all that we do, you understand that there were very insurmountable reasons and difficulties. We will make sure, through the recruitments planned by the Greek government and the Ministry of Civil Protection, that we have the required scientists, so that we can fill this gap as well. I hope we can use this technology all together, there is no division, no one is left out in the service of our fellow citizens.”

For his part, the director of the National Meteorological Center of EMY and member of the scientific Committee for Risk Assessment, Thodoris Kolidas, emphasized that the meteorological stations are a beginning, “which will continue with the radars as these meteorological stations will be able to cooperate and with the radars that will be installed”.

“We will have better knowledge of the flood risk and the corresponding Committee that exists, the Scientific Committee of the Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, will be able to do its work better.

I believe that in the future, in collaboration with machine learning, with the intelligent solutions that can be made and with the assimilation of data from meteorological stations and in general from surveillance means, we will have better predictive tools in our quiver for a reliable forecast, which will have the ability to warn citizens properly about severe weather phenomena”, noted Mr. You are wandering.

In addition, Mr. Kolydas referred to the staff shortages in the EMH underlining the need for “people” who will be able to work on these new technologies as well as the synergies between the country’s agencies. “The EMY, being fully integrated into the Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, should be the main operational core uniting all the meteorological and hydrological bodies of our country”, he noted and pointed out that it is proposed to consider the establishment of a National Meteorological Council, a body similar to successful, as he mentioned, Risk Assessment Committee.

“The position of the EMY in the Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection should be the core of operational meteorology and hydrology, with a decisive role in bringing together the fragmented meteorological and hydrological activities of our country”, he underlined.

“Another day has dawned for EMY”, said the former director of EMY’s National Meteorological Center and member of the Scientific Risk Assessment Committee, Dimitris Ziakopoulos.

“Having served for 20 years in EMY as the Head of Forecasting, Head of Forecasting and Director of the National Meteorological Center and three years in Civil Protection as a member of the Commission, I can say with certainty that another day has dawned for EMY. It is not only the equipment, it is also the structural reorganization of the service. And I want to believe, I am sure that this will be for the good of the Greek citizens”, noted Mr. Ziakopoulos.

Mr. Ziakopoulos emphasized that “the information from the stations will be the initial conditions in every model they predict” while referring to the contribution of artificial intelligence to accurate forecasts. He also underlined the need for a targeted 112 in which artificial intelligence will have the first say.

“Despite what is heard, climate change is present. Right now the atmosphere is one degree warmer than it was a century ago,” he stressed, adding that the increase in the frequency of extreme weather events makes their work both as meteorologists and as a service difficult.

“Faced with this challenge that we see developing rapidly, strengthening our country with modern infrastructure and with digital technology and digital upgrading of prevention and early preparation for extreme weather events is imperative. In this context, the timely implementation of the projects entrusted to us by the Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection is not just our obligation in the Information Society, but our main priority. With the project for the supply of weather stations and the early warning of natural disasters, financed by the Recovery Fund, which is now on track for implementation with the signing of the contract, the difficult work of the Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection is further strengthened. For our part, in the Information Society, we will remain close partners and helpers in the difficult work of the ministry and committed to the timely implementation of all the projects entrusted to us. I will speak, not as a CEO, but as a citizen and I will say a huge thank you to Minister Vassilis Kikilia, because with the constant monitoring of the projects, I think that, Minister, you must be the Minister with whom I speak more than all the Ministers of government lately, since you took over. The results are now clear. And really, as a citizen, I thank you very much, because from now on there will be all the tools and infrastructure to have a state, a civil protection on the side of the citizen, where we need it” pointed out the managing director of the Information Society , Stavros Asthenidis..

“Space Hellas has an extensive experience in systems related to the meteorological service for almost 20 years. We have worked with weather service officials many times with success. We have many specialized staff in this field, so we will be able to successfully implement this contract. The contribution of the Information Society during the implementation of the contract is also important. It is a great honor for us to be able to contribute to a decisive field for our country” said the executive president of Space Hellas Spyridon Manolopoulos.

Automatic weather stations will be installed in various areas of the territory, which have been indicated by the National Weather Service. Among these areas are Ymittos, Aegina, Kythira, Thessaloniki, Larissa, Kavala, Preveza, Andravida, Kalamata, Chania, Skyros etc., creating an integrated network, which will captures the weather conditions across the country. This will decisively improve the quality of weather forecasts, which will no longer be represented by theoretically calculated values, but by actual data that the stations will provide every 10 minutes.