An agreement for the purchase and installation of seven meteorological network radars in Greece will be signed in the early months of 2025, Civil Protection said on Wednesday.
The new radars will have the needed infrastructure and be installed in existing facilities of the National Meteorological Service (EMY), they said.
As Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias has pointed out, these new meteorological stations and radars will cover a 20-year gap in Greece and upgrade prevention and timely preparation for extreme climate phenomena, and are part of the "Aegis" plan.
The cost of purchase, installation, and facilities to provide climate data will amount to over 36 million euros. Sources said the systems are expected to be installed, among others, in Kavala, Thessaloniki, Preveza, Andravida. Additional options include Skyros, Larissa, Aegina, Mt. Imittos, Chania, Kalamata, and Kythira.
Additionally, sources related to Civil Protection said that the procurement of a short-term forecasting (Nowcasting) system with the necessary software and hardware (e.g. servers) was expected to also take place, along with a system to produce automated briefings and warnings. These would be installed at EMY and the Regional Meteorological Center of Larissa as backups.
The radar contract is also expected include the extension of EMY's national network of stations by the addition of 30 systems of Hydrological Automated Meteorological Stations, 12 systems to identify Atmospheric Electrical Discharges, 2 systems of reception and processing of data from meteorological satellites, and the general upgrade of the central facility equipment and software to provide critical data to the existing EMY system.