C-SRNWP Programme
Yearly Report for 2013 and Financial Statement
Prepared by: Gergely Bölöni, C-SRNWP PM
Hungarian Meteorological Service
1024 Budapest, Kitaibel Pal utca 1., Hungary
For submission to: EIG EUMETNET Secretariat
Summary:
Action required: For information and comment
Distribution: Public
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Date |
Author(s) |
Content |
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January 30, 2014 |
Gergely Bölöni |
First version |
1. Headlines
- The C-SRNWP PM attended several short
range NWP related meetings during the year, where the current status of
the project has been presented.
- Coordination with the OPERA programme continued in order to help the timely
delivery of OD1 and OD3 tasks of OPERA, which target the redistribution
and quality flagging of radar volume data (reflectivity and wind).
- Inputs regarding observation network
design and observation monitoring standards were given to EUCOS and Obs-SET from an SRNWP perspective.
- Thanks to the ongoing coordination with
ECMWF and the short-range EPS community, a joint proposal for the TAC BC
subgroup was made to extend the BC programme
with respect to lateral boundary conditions coming from the ensemble
system of ECMWF.
- An update of the data policy regarding the
SRNWP data pool has been prepared and approved by Assembly. The new data
policy allows not only C-SRNWP members but also universities to access the
data base.
- The maintenance and development costs of the Global Lake Data Base was taken up by the
COSMO consortium for 2014.
- Discussions started on the possible use of
European NWP models in education and research. The expectation and
experiences of the SRNWP community are being collected in the form of a
questionnaire.
- The EWGLAM/SRNWP meeting has been
organized with the active involvement of the C-SRNWP PM and Expert Teams.
2. Status
of programmatic targets
The main activity of the C-SRNWP programme is the scientific and technical (operational)
coordination between the five LAM Consortia in Europe (ALADIN, COSMO, HIRLAM,
LACE and Met Office). The coordination is ensured by the eight Expert Teams
(data assimilation and use of observations; diagnostics, validation and
verification; dynamics and lateral boundary coupling; link with applications;
physical parameterization: upper air; predictability and EPS; surface and soil
processes: model and data assimilation; system aspects) established in 2008 and
through the regular correspondence, including the annual meeting, between the
members of the SRNWP Advisory Expert Team Committee (previously called Advisory
Committee), which consists of the consortia heads and the Expert Team chairs. Standing
for the success of the EUMETNET programmatic targets, coordination with other
Forecasting (SRNWP-EPS, Nowcasting) and Observation
(EUCOS, OPERA) Projects/Activities is done. During 2013 the following
coordination efforts have been made.
Participation organization
of short-range NWP related meetings
At the HIRLAM-ALADIN All Staff meeting and at
the COSMO General meeting, a presentation was given by the C-SRNWP PM about the
recent and future coordination activities within the project. The EPS and
Physics Expert Teams have been active in organizing the scientific programme of the EPS-Physics scientific workshop held on
the 18-20 June at AEMET. Also the C-SRNWP PM was chairing the final discussion
of the workshop aiming to set up a more enhanced cooperation between EPS and
Physics experts in the future.
Coordination with
OPERA for enhancing radar data assimilation
C-SRNWP PM did his best to help the OPERA PM to
further clarify the needs of the SRNWP (and NWP) community regarding the radar
data (OPERA products) and thus to accomplish the OPERA deliverables OD1 and OD3
on time (by the end of 2014). Members of the Opera User Group (OUG) from the
SRNWP community have been active in clarifying the set of metadata needed to be
sent to Odyssey for enabling data Quality Indication (QI). The redistribution
and central quality flagging of radial wind data is likely to progress as
expected. The redistribution and quality flagging of reflectivity data is a
critical point though. One of the important requirements of the SRNWP community
is the distinction between “no data” (due to cluttering or inbuilt filtering of
noise) and “no rain” information. This turns out to be not trivial to manage
even at the level of NMSs, but in some cases it will require to go back to the
radar providers and to change / upgrade the signal processor of radars. This
fact may slow down the achievement of OD1 regarding reflectivity and the
estimation of the delay is very uncertain due to the heterogeneity of the
European radar network. It is to be mentioned that through SMHI, OPERA volume
data are accessible for the modeler community for testing and so far without
any user support or service level agreement.
Observation network
design (support EUCOS, Obs-SET)
Input was prepared for the annual Obs-SET meeting (previous E-SAT) on behalf of the SRNWP
community. This included a survey on the SRNWP activities regarding the
assimilation of BUFR radisonds including the use of
the position and exact time of the measurements during the ascents. Also the
EUCOS monitoring standards were commented by the SRNWP community, which was
presented at the Obs-SET meeting. Degrees of Freedom
for Signal (DFS) and Forecast Sensitivity to Observations (FSO) are widely used
tools in global models to measure the importance of the elements of the
observing network and thus for suggesting their redesign. For the Obs-SET meeting DFS and FSO results from short-range NWP
models have been collected to complement the picture shown by the global
experiments.
Coordination with
ECMWF regarding the extension of IFS EPS boundary conditions for very high
resolution EPS systems
During the year the ALADIN, COSMO and HIRLAM
SRNWP consortia gained experience using the “boundary condition test-bed at
resolution T1279” kindly provided by ECMWF, within their very high resolution
(HR) EPS systems. The impact of using high-resolution (T1279) ECMWF ENS
boundary condition data for the HR EPS runs was investigated compared to the
case when the current operational ECMWF boundary conditions are used. A
workshop at ECMWF was held (9-10 December 2013) to overview the results of the above
experiments, assessing the added value of high-resolution (T1279) ENS LBCs
compared to the current operational LBCs. Based on these results and on other
requirements of the SRNWP EPS community, a proposal has been prepared for the
TAC subgroup for the revision of the Boundary Condition (BC) Optional project
of ECMWF. The proposal contains two options, both as an extension of the
current BC project:
- 2
extra runs of IFS ENS (at 06 and 18 UTC) with present resolution
(including the planned upgrade in 2015), 6 days forecast range, 50+1
members, hourly output (this last also for the operational 00 and 12 UTC
runs)
- 2
extra runs of IFS ENS (at 06 and 18 UTC) with present resolution (included
the planned upgrade in 2015), 50+1 members up to a 3 day forecast range,
then 20 + 1 members up to 6 day forecast range, hourly output (this last
also for the operational 00 and 12 UTC runs)
The TAC subgroup will consider this proposal
and possibly put it forward to TAC at its next meeting (9-10 October 2014).
SRNWP data pool for
universities/academia
The SRNWP data pool is currently accessible for
C-SRNWP project members. The data included in the pool helps the validation of
soil models and soil-atmosphere interfaces in NWP models (the data are
accessible with a delay of half year to prevent their use in operational
analysis and forcasting). It is a general view of the
SRNWP community that providing the SRNWP data pool to universities would foster
the development of NWP soil or atmospheric models at universities, offering an
additional manpower available at NMSs. The C-SRNWP PM prepared a proposal for
the next STAC/PFAC meeting (October 2013) promoting the access to universities.
The proposal has been endorsed by STAC/PFAC and has been approved by Assembly
in November 2013. The two non-EUMETNET data providers (ARPA-SIMC and Roshydromet) expressed informally, that they also support
the proposal to extend the access of the SRNWP data pool. Correspondence in
this matter is ongoing with Roshydromet, ARPA-SIMC
already sent its official answer to the C-SRNWP PM.
Support for the Global
Lake Data Base
Under the coordination of the EUMETNET C-SRNWP Programme a lake data base is being developed. This global
lake data base (GLDB) comprises valuable information regarding lake depths and lake bathymetry. These information
are especially useful in lake modeling and data assimilation, which provide an
important component for the development of numerical weather prediction models
and consequently weather forecasts. The GLDB is available for the whole
European and world weather and climate modeling community for research and
development purposes. The funding for the technical maintenance of GLDB was
provided by ECMWF during 2012 but it has not been prolonged. It has been
proposed that the European Environmental Agency (EEA) includes this database to
its product list and takes care about its maintenance and development in the
future. This proposal was however not successful. A solution for the
continuation was proposed by the COSMO consortium. The COSMO PM declared at the
EWGLAM/SRNWP meeting, that the COSMO consortium will cover the maintenance and
development costs of GLDB for 2014. For the continuation in 2015, the ALADIN
consortium seems to be the actual candidate.
Promoting European NWP
models for education
A webex meeting has
been organized by the C-SRNWP PM in order to set up concrete goals for the
general aim of promoting European NWP models in education and research. The
main motivation of this anticipated promotion activity is to compete with the
freely available open source limited are models developed mainly at the US,
which are popular education tools at European
Universities. The use of European NWP models in education at universities might
be one of the key issues in successfully supplying expertise in NWP at NMSs.
The Forecasting PM, the EUMETCAL PM and the OpenIFS
team from ECMWF were the participants of the webex
meeting beside the C-SRNWP PM. Possible promotion efforts with three levels of
complexity have been identified: 1) promotion by connecting interested NMSs and
universities showing successful examples; 2) Promoting the OpenIFS
as an education tool for NMSs and universities; 3) Developing “education
versions” of operational NWP models in the consortia and promoting these at
NMSs and universities as common tools. It has been decided that the heads of
consortia and Expert Team chairs (SRNWP Advisory Expert Team) will be contacted
with a questionnaire in order to measure, which of the above 3 options is
realistic within the current Programme Phase. Also
the UK MetOffice and ECMWF will be contacted to get
an estimation of the necessary system development efforts for creating
“education versions” of NWP models. The questionnaire was sent out by the C-SRNWP PM
to the SRNWP consortia (ALADIN, COSMO, HIRLAM, LACE, UKMO) leaders in September
but not many answers came in that time. A reminder has been circulated in
December, which resulted in a couple of inputs.
Preparation of the
EWGLAM/SRNWP meeting
The EWGLAM/SRNWP meeting (30 September – 3
October) took place in Antalya. The programme was
drafted by the C-SRNWP PM with the help of the Expert Team chairs (Data
Assimilation, EPS, Link with Applications, Verification). Presentations are
accessible through the C-SRNWP website: http://srnwp.met.hu/Annual_Meetings/2013/index.html
The meeting included the SRNWP business
meeting, where the activities within the EUMETNET Forecasting Programme and within the C-SRNWP Project have been
presented. Also, the SRNWP Advisory ET (AET) meeting took place. At the meeting
the COSMO PM announced that the COSMO consortium is ready to support the
maintenance and development of the Global Lake Data Base (GLDB) in 2014. It was
very much welcomed by AET and also pointed out that the future maintenance and
development beyond 2014 should be done with the involvement of the other
consortia on a rotational basis. Noticing the permanent vacant ET chair
positions, a task oriented approach has been proposed by the AET, which means
that the ETs without chair will be contacted for a volunteer with respect to
each specific, well defined coordination task once necessary. The AET meeting
minutes are available from the C-SRNWP PM.
3. Communication and cooperation
The communication with C-SRNWP member
representatives, the Forecasting Programme Manager,
other PMs of the Forecasting Programme, Expert Teams is
mainly maintained via email. Also the following meetings were used to enhance
the communication and cooperation with different partners:
- HIRLAM-ALADIN
All Staff Meeting, 14-21 April, Reykjavik
- SRNWP-EPS
workshop and SRNWP-EPS Activity meeting, 17-21 April, Madrid
- Forecasting
Programme Management meeting, 21 April, Madrid
- E-SAT
meeting, 1-3 July 2013, Reading
- COSMO
meeting, 3-5 Sep 2013, Sibiu
- EWGLAM/SRNWP
meeting, 30 Sep - 3 Oct 2013, Antalya
- ECMWF
SAC meeting, 13-16 Oct 2013, Reading
It is to be mentioned as well, that 5 new users
(Czech Republic, Germany, France, UK, the Netherlands) have joined to use the SRNWP
surface data pool (maintained by the COSMO consortium).
4. Benefits delivery
In general, the coordination of European
limited area modeling activities is clearly beneficial for the EUMETNET
partners, since it enhances the development of SRNWP models used by the
modeling consortia and their members, significantly contributing to the
improvement of meteorological forecasting services with special emphasis on the
protection of life and property.
More particularly the coordination work done
during 2013 implicitly contributes to the development of limited area model
(LAM) data assimilation systems (through the coordination with OPERA, the improvement
of observation monitoring standards and through the collection of LAM DFS and
FSO results) and to the development of physical parametrizations
and short range probabilistic forecasts (through the enhancement of cooperation
between EPS and physical parametrization scientists).
Also, through giving access to universities to the SRNWP data pool, some
contribution is expected from the academic community in the development of
land-surface models. Ensuring the development of the Global Lake Data Base by
the COSMO consortium for 2014, enables progress in the field of surface
modeling. The joint planning with ECMWF to better serve convection permitting
ensemble runs with boundary condition data is expected to have a positive
impact on short range EPS forecasting on a 5-years timescale.
5. Financial report
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Explanatory notes: |
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R2: The 2013 overspending (381€)
is covered from last year's surplus. This change has been done under the
right of the 2013 financial
delegation and with the approval of the FPM and ED EUMETNET. |
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S2/S5: 381€ are still in EIG account and included in S5. 381€ will be transferred to C-SRNWP in February 2014) |
6. Risks
and issues
None to report.
7. Programme
change requests
None.
8. Outlook
The most important SRNWP related coordination goals
for the 2014 are to
- Follow
and help the conversation between the OPERA and SRNWP communities (relevant
members of the OPERA User Group) regarding the NWP use of radar data (supply
of Odyssey by radial wind data by NMSs, quality indication of radial wind
and reflectivity data).
- Put
forward to ECMWF TAC (through its dedicated subgroup) the SRNWP EPS
proposal for the extension of the ECMWF BC Optional project to provide EPS
LBCs.
- Discuss
the priorities of SRNWP consortia (and possibly universities) regarding
the promotion of European SRNWP models for education.
- Organize
the scientific programme of the EWGLAM/SRNWP
workshop (29 September – 2 October, Offenbach), which is the most
appropriate meeting for the C-SRNWP member representatives to meet.
- Provide
help and information to Obs-SET on the value and
use of observations in LAM data assimilation systems.
- Participate
at the COSMO General Meeting and at the ECMWF SAC meeting.
