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Structure of membersZagreb, November 16–17, 2023
Challenges in Meteorology 9 (MI9)
The importance of agrometeorology in supporting the agricultural sector
The Croatian Meteorological Society (HMD) has been organizing the Challenges in Meteorology, a scientific conference with international participation, every year and a half since 2010. The meteorological topics of the meeting are always connected with some current issue in the economy. Thus, in 2023, the theme The importance of agrometeorology in supporting the agricultural sector was chosen, so the conference was co-organized by the Croatian Agrometeorological Society (HAgMD) in addition to the Department of Geophysics of the Faculty of Science (GFO PMF), the Croatian Meteorological and Hydrological Service (DHMZ) and the Croatia Control (HKZP). The general patrons were the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Science and Education, and the patron was the City of Zagreb. Altium International d.o.o. was the sponsor, and the conference was supported by the European Meteorological Society (EMS).
President of the Organizing Committee (OO) Vesna Đuričić and nine members of OO and 13 students of geophysics excellently and successfully organized a conference and socializing with a joint dinner. President of the Scientific Committee (SC), Dr. Višnjica Vučetić and 19 eminent Croatian scientists from various fields of meteorology reviewed all received abstracts and compiled the program of the conference.
The goals of the conference were:
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how agrometeorology can respond to the needs of farmers with its specialized meteorological products to enable them to successfully produce food
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to exchange knowledge and the latest results of scientific research in meteorology, climatology, synoptic meteorology, numerical modeling and other related fields
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to strengthen the communication with users of meteorological data and products, the general public and the media and to promote and popularize the meteorology.
Meteorological Challenges 9 was opened by Vesna Đuričić, president of HMD, and the welcoming speeches were given by: Prof. Mirko Planinić, PMF dean, Dr. Branka Ivančan-Picek, director general of DHMZ, Prof. Danijel Belušić, head of the Geophysical Department of the Faculty of Science, Igor Kos, Executive Director of the Aviation Meteorology and Aviation Information Sector, HKZP and Prof. Damir Barčić, president of HAgMD.
Within nine sections, there were 48 excellent lectures, two of which were invited lectures, and 16 HAgMD members gave 15 presentations and four posters. The sections were Agrometeorology, Silvometeorology, Meteorological extremes and their impacts, Climatology and biometeorology, Climate change and adaptation, Climate change and adaptation in agriculture, Applied meteorology, Weather forecast, Environmental protection – air quality.
Dr. Joan Cuxart Rodamilans from the University of the Balearic Islands, Spain held an
invited lecture Contrasting evapotranspiration over different irrigated and non-irrigated crops during the LIAISE 2021 campaign. Dr. Željka Stone from New Mexico Tech, Climate and Weather Consortium, USA gave an invited lecture Studying Hurricanes with Airborne Data. On behalf of HAgMD, Dr. Višnja Vučetić presented the two projects: the book Plants that Tell the Weather by Marko Vučetić and Little School Fire is no joke – an animated short film and children's comic. The participants of the conference were shown the English version of the film so that everyone could follow it. Out of 12 posters, four were from members of HAgMD. The abstracts are published in Proceedings of Abstracts. 129 participants attended the conference, and another 16 participants followed the conference online from 14 countries: Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Italy, Cyprus, Spain, Bulgaria, Ukraine, USA, Egypt, Guatemala, India and Ivory Coast.
Challenges in Meteorology 9 is the first Croatian scientific conference that was entirely dedicated to agrometeorological topics and showed that our agrometeorological research is keeping pace with European and global research.
Dr. Višnja Vučetić
Participants of the scientific conference with international participation the Challenges in Meteorology 9: The importance of agrometeorology in supporting the agricultural sector in Zagreb on November 16 (above) and November 17, 2023 (below).