Annual Report 2004, C-SRNWP Programme

One of the characteristics of the year under review has been an enhanced communication of the Programme Manager not only with the European NWP specialists, but also with several different other institutions as:

• WMO: Presentation at its 'Third Workshop on the Impact of Various Observing Systems on NWP' of a talk on the use of radar and GPS in data assimilation
• THOPEX: Interactions with NA-TReC (North-Atlantic THORPEX Regional Campaign) and participation at the 'First THORPEX International Science Symposium'
• ENES (European Network for Earth System Modelling): Participation as an 'unofficial' representative of the NWP community at the 2004 Meeting of this Network whose activity is climate modelling
• IABM (International Association of Broadcast Meteorology):Invited talk on 'Progress in Limited Area Modelling and Challenges of the Future' during the 'First World Conference on Broadcast Meteorology' in Barcelona
• University of Geneva: Invited talk on 'Meteorology and Computers' in the frame of the 'Computer Week' organised in November

At these 5 events, the Programme Manager had the opportunity, depending on the audience, to explain what Numerical Weather Prediction is about or to present some technical aspects of it.

Inside EUMETNET, the Programme Manager had several contacts with EUCOS, particularly during the EUCOS Science Advisory Team Meeting which took place at the ECMWF in May. Discussions with EUCOS representatives have also taken place in the frame of THORPEX where possible contributions of the European NWP community have been discussed.

Inside the C-SRNWP Programme, three technical workshops have been organised which have been characterised by a very high scientific level. So, the latest developments have been presented and discussed in:

• Mesoscale Verification (KNMI, 14-15 June)
• Surface Processes and Assimilation of Surfaces Variables (SMHI, 15-17 September)
• High Resolution Data Assimilation (Meteorological Office, 15-17 November)

The 24th of September, the activities of the SRNWP Programme have been presented at the COSMO (COnsortium for Small-scale MOdelling) annual meeting which took place in Milano-Linate (Italy).

The joint EWGLAM/SRNWP Meeting took place the 4-6 October in Oslo, organised by met.no. 21 NWS were represented. A detailed report of this meeting, which defines for a large part the work of the Programme Manager for the next 12 months was created.

One of the main points has been the decision to submit a proposal for a 'Research and Training Network for Very High Resolution NWP' in the frame of the EU instrument 'Human Resources and Mobility'. The proposal has been sent to Brussels December the 2nd. 19 European NWS participates in this action. The official proposer is Meteo-France.

2004 has been a break-through year for the SRNWP PEPS Project (Ensemble Prediction System based on short-range operational NWP products). 18 NWS are sending daily to DWD the precipitation fields computed by their model. Probabilistic precipitation fields for whole Europe as well as mean precipitation forecasts are now produced each day and are at the disposal of the participating NWS.