Double header: Climate and the weather; vehicle hailstone damage claims

First: Dr John Le Marshall - on Climate and the weather. Second: Tia Gaffney on Fraudulent hailstone vehicle claims.     

Can you really read a weather map?  Professor John Le Marshall, Senior Principal Research Scientist and Meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology will present on the acquisition of Australian atmospheric and surface weather and climate data, analysis, and examples of the use of weather information including Numerical Weather Prediction.  Dr Le Marshall was Director of the NASA NOAA and DoD Joint Centre for Satellite Data Assimilation and has advanced knowledge of weather data acquisition, including via satellites and using GPS – for example, to measure temperature, moisture and wind.

Dr Le Marshall, over a long career at the Bureau of Meteorology and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has had enormous influence on the science of satellite remote sensing and its assimilation into numerical weather prediction, leading to improved weather predictions for Australia and the world. John has been a leader in the international community of scientists working on temperature and moisture retrievals from the TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder (TOVS) instrument on the NOAA polar orbiting satellites. His international reputation and expertise led to his appointment as director of the USA Joint Centre for Satellite Data Assimilation in 2004. While there, John's pivotal work on using data from the Advanced Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument led to him being awarded NASA's highest scientific award. He currently provides advice to NOAA in the design of its next generation geostationary satellites.

Tia Gaffney is a mechanical engineer with 16 years of experience in forensic engineering; specifically, in reconstructing incidents resulting in casualty, serious injury or losses. She has investigated thousands of vehicle collisions and hundreds of workplace incidents and has testified in Courts throughout Australia. Ms Gaffney was appointed by the Department of Justice to the Road Safety Camera Commission Reference Group, where she currently serves as an acting board member.

Tia will describe the investigation of hailstone damage claims for vehicles, particularly following a December 2011 Victorian hailstorm involving $712m damages claims

Book online here now.