Report 2006-2: April - June

Main point

At its 27th Meeting (4-6 April, Toulouse), the EUMETNET Council has adopted all the recommendations made by the Working Group of the Workshop 'A Vision for NWP in Europe'. These recommendations have been classified in 6 themes. The SRNWP Programme Manager has started work for the realisation of the propositions of the theme 'Quick Wins':

• Identifying a common format for the exchange of a limited set of products for the benefits of forecasters:
  contact has been taken with the 'Working Group for the Cooperation between European Forecasters'. This Group will examine this Recommendation at its 12th Meeting (29-30 September 2006, Athens).
• SRNWP Programme will define at its next general meeting (11-12 October 2006, Zurich) a draft programme proposal for spring 2007:
  The work has started and a draft proposal will be sent to the SRNWP National Representatives in the course of next August for discussion at the next SRNWP Annual Meeting.

Conferences and Workshops

11-12 May, ECMWF: E-SAT Meeting 2006 (E-SAT = EUCOS - Scientific Advisory Team).

At this meeting, the SRNWP Co-ordinator presented to the participants

• an overview and the conclusions of the meeting 'A Vision for NWP in Europe'
• the 3 Resolutions voted bythe NMS delegates at the last SRNWP Annual Meeting (5th October 2005,Ljubljana; see http://srnwp.cscs.ch/Annual_Meetings/2005/SRNWPreport.htm).

Resolution 1:
Strategy of EUCOS II (2007-2011).

The Resolution could not be accepted by E-SAT as the strategy proposed by the SRNWP Programme does not fit with the PB-OBS recommendations and the decisions taken by Council at its 27th Meeting. The SRNWP Coordinator continues to think that for EUCOS the concentration on the synoptic scale only is no longer sufficient and that the mesoscale should be added to the Programme.

Resolution 2:
Coding and dissemination of the upper air soundings in BUFR code next to the TEMP code.

Although recommended by the

• WWW Department of WMO(format has been defined by the Commission for Basic System)
• 14th Session of the WMORegional Association VI (7-15 September 2005 at Heidelberg, Germany), DocumentAPP_WP4
• PB-OBS, 11th or 12th Meeting(minutes unfortunately no longer on-line at the EUCOS web site)
• E-SAT Meeting 2006 (minutesnot yet on-line)

it is disappointing to see that the upper air soundings are still disseminated only with the antiquated TEMP code which does not allow the precision needed by the mesoscale models (time of the measurements, spatial and temporal resolutions).

Resolution 3:
Radar compositing

The decision taken at the 23rd Council Meeting to forbid development work for European radar composite in the frame of the OPERA Programme has been subsequently relaxed by Council:compositing development work is now allowed for data quality purposes and is in progress at the Meteorological Office. SRNWP is satisfied and no further demand or action is presently planed.

17-18 May, Sofia (Bulgaria):Third SRNWP Workshop on Mesoscale Verification

This workshop took place in Sofia simultaneously with the HIRLAM All Staff Meeting 2006 and the 16th ALADIN Workshop. This has allowed the participants to have contacts with colleagues of the two other meetings and HIRLAM/ALADIN colleagues to attend some presentations on verification.

20-22 June, Paris: First Workshop on Remote Sensing and Modelling of Surface Properties

This workshop jointly organized by the 'Observatoire de Paris' and NOAA/NESDIS has been characterized by a large participation of US and Canadian scientists and a rather week participation of the European NMS.

The meeting was centred on the determination by satellite of the soil emissivities and skin temperatures in order to use with the highest possible accuracy the soil sensitive satellite channels for temperature and humidity profiling over land.

As this meeting has been very stimulating, it has been decided to re-conduct it in two year time, very probably in the USA.

Outlook July - December 2006

Main points

• Preparation of the SRNWPAnnual Meeting 2006 (9-12 October, Zurich)
• Preparation of a draft'Programme Decision' for an enlarged SRNWP Programme, as decided atthe 'A Vision for NWP in Europe' Meeting. Dissemination of this drafton the 15th-20th of August for discussion at the SRNWP Annual Meeting 2006
• Continuation of the worksconnected with the 'Quick Wins' selected at the 'SRNWP VisionMeeting'
• Consultations toinvestigate the possibility to set up a European THORPEX TIGGE-LAM.
  This is a proposition under the theme 'European interactive multi-model LAM' decided at the 'A Vision for NWP in Europe' (15-17 March 2006, ECMWF).
• Tentative: Preparation withthe Chairman of the Second NWP Vision Workshop early 2007, as proposed byMeteo-France (see minutes of the 27th Council), with presentation of the draftfor the enlarged SRNWP Programme.
  As far as I know, it is not yet decided whether this meeting will take place or not.
• Organisation of a JointSRNWP-OPERA Meeting (tentative)

Conferences and Workshops

• 18-22 September, Bucharest (Romania): COSMO General Meeting 2006
• 9-12 October, Zurich (Switzerland): 28th EWGLAM and 13th SRNWP Meetings
• 4-8 December, Landshut (Germany): Second THORPEX International Science Symposium