ENG-2006 — Page 363

The Environment | 299

In the event of a nuclear emergency, the Observatory will immediately intensify. radiation monitoring, assess the radiological consequences and provide technical advice to the relevant policy bureaux on the appropriate protective actions to take.

Climatological, Oceanographic and Geophysical Services

The Observatory provides climatological information to meet the needs of users. and activities ranging from recreation to engineering design, environmental impact analysis and litigation. It also carries out studies on climate change and the impact of weather and climate on health. The Observatory issues in March each year an outlook on the annual rainfall and the number of tropical cyclones likely to affect Hong Kong. In 2006, the Observatory started issuing seasonal forecasts on the temperature and the rainfall in Hong Kong once every three months on an experimental basis.

The Observatory produces an annual tide table for Hong Kong. It also provides assessments of the probabilities of occurrence of extreme storm surges and advice on oceanographic matters to other government departments and the engineering community.

To monitor earthquake activities in the vicinity of Hong Kong, the Observatory operates a network of eight short-period seismograph stations. Long-period seismographs at the Observatory's headquarters detect tremors worldwide and information on significant tremors is made public through the media. In case of severe submarine earthquakes, a tsunami warning would be issued if necessary. In order to maintain public awareness, tsunami bulletins would be issued to inform the public about even the smaller scale tsunamis in Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong Time Standard is provided by a caesium beam atomic clock, which is accurate to within fractions of a microsecond. The Observatory contributes to the determination of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) by supplying signals of its atomic clock to the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) in France. Time checking services are available to the public through the Observatory's Dial-a-Weather System, the Internet and local radio stations. The Internet Network Time Service handled more than 395 million checks in 2006, a rise of 11 per cent compared with the previous year.

Home Pages

Environment, Transport and Works Bureau: www.etwb.gov.hk Economic Development and Labour Bureau: www.edlb.gov.hk

Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department: www.afcd.gov.hk Environmental Protection Department: www.epd.gov.hk

Hong Kong Observatory: www.hko.gov.hk and www.weather.gov.hk