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.
The second 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:
2008 (21st and 2nd Awards)
Olivier Bousquet Pierry Tabary and Jacques Parent du Châtelet received the 21st Professor Dr Vilho Väisälä Award for their paper entitled “On the value of operationally synthesized multiple-Doppler wind fields”. Luca G. Lanza (Italy), Michel Leroy (France), Christophe Alexandropoulos (France), Luigi Stagi (Italy) and Willem M.F. Wauben (The Netherlands) were awarded the second Professor Dr Vilho Väisälä Award for their paper entitled “WMO laboratory intercomparison of rainfall intensity gauges”.
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”