Annual Report 2008, C-SRNWP Programme

Introduction

The C-SRNWP (Coordination for Short Range Numerical Weather Prediction) EUMETNET Programme was led by MeteoSwiss (with Jean Quiby as Programme Manager) in the period of 2000-2007. At the end of 2007 the EUMETNET Council decided to entrust the Hungarian Meteorological Service (OMSZ) as new responsible member (with Andras Horanyi as Programme Manager) for the renewed C-SRNWP Programme (the Programme objectives and structure were renewed, but with the provision of the same financial means as it was the case for the first 8 years of the programme).

The Programme costs consist of the salary of the part-time Programme Manager together with some travel costs needed for the coordination activity of the Programme Manager. All the 24 EUMETNET members are participating in the programme (however not all of them are members of any of the European LAM Consortium), moreover Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Turkey are also members in the programme due to their participation in one of the LAM (Limited Area Modelling) Consortium of Europe (Romania and Slovakia have also financial contribution).

The C-SRNWP Programme is essentially focused around the five LAM Consortia (see Figure below) of Europe namely ALADIN, COSMO, HIRLAM, LACE and MetOffice and stimulates scientific, technical and operational cooperation among them in the field of short range numerical weather prediction. The Programme also ensures the NWP information exchange in Europe with the organisation of thematic workshops, projects and with the maintenance of the webpage (see srnwp.met.hu) of the programme.

Advisory Committee (AC)

SRNWP Advisory Committee was established, where the leaders of the respective LAM Consortia of Europe are represented (ALADIN:Jean-Francois Geleyn; COSMO: Marco Arpagaus; HIRLAM: Jeanette Onvlee; LACE. Dijana Klaric; Met Office: Terry Davies). The Advisory Committee members provide support for the Programme Manager in terms of immediate advice on any issues related to the Programme. The Advisory Committee realises most of its work through frequent email exchanges together with two meetings per year (one at late spring and one during the annual meeting at the beginning of October). The Advisory Committee is an efficient group representing the interest of the LAM Consortia and therefore consequently also the interest of the member states.

Expert Teams (ET)

The basic idea behind the establishment of Expert Teams is to create similar organisational and working structure as it is the case inside each Consortia, i.e. working groups on specific subjects of interest for NWP, which are aiming to plan, stimulate and realise cross-consortia activities on their area of scientific interest. The following Expert Teams were created:

• data assimilation and use of observations
• diagnostics, validation and verification
• dynamics and lateral boundary coupling
• link with applications
• physical parameterisation (upper air)
• predictability and EPS
• surface and soil processes (model and data assimilation)
• system aspects

The first task of the Programme was to nominate members for the Expert Teams (maximum 3 members of experts per team per Consortia). Then the Expert Teams elected their chairpersons and then workplans were created and then updated. The Expert Teams assisted in the definition of the scientific content of the annual EWGLAM (European Working Group on Limited Area Modelling) meeting.

Annual EWGLAM/SRNWP meetings

The annual meetings are traditionally the most important events of the LAM community (with the participation of Consortia representatives and national focal points for SRNWP). Inline with the changes in the C-SRNWP Programme the structure of the EWGLAM/SRNWP meeting had been also modified. The following sessions were hold during the meetings: Consortia presentations (also ECMWF); national posters, review talks on the subjects of the Expert Teams; scientific NWP sessions with discussions; EWGLAM final discussion; SRNWP business meeting; SRNWP Advisory Committee meeting. The new format of the meetings was found satisfactory between the participants.

Accompanying Programmes

Originally three additional Programme Proposals were put on the table of the EUMETNET Council during 2007: interoperability, verification and EurEPS (European LAMEPS system). Until now the Council approved and accepted the Interoperability and Verification Programmes, but suspended the EurEPS one. The Interoperability Programme had already been started at the beginning of September, 2008 with the responsible membership of Met Office and with Rachel North as Programme Manager. The Verification Programme was accepted during the spring Council of 2008 and responsible member is going to be elected in the present Council meeting.

SRNWP Interoperability Programme

(PM: Rachel North): The Programme had been started recently with the following initial tasks:

• Contracts are being drawn up for the Programme and sent out to the participating National Meteorological Services.
• Efforts are currently being made to identify, which National Meteorological Service will receive the subsidy payment on behalf each Consortium.
• An initial workshop has been scheduled for December 1^st to 3^rd, which will be held at ECMWF, Reading, UK. The purpose of this workshop is to discuss and agree the standard output format for the Programme (for deliverable D1, B and C of the Programme Decision document).
• Deliverable 1 for the Programme Decision document has been completed (Complete an inventory of existing model output formats, conversion tools and contact points).

SRNWP Verification Programme

The Programme proposal was drawn by the Diagnostics, validation and verification Expert Team and accepted by the EUMETNET Council. The Met Office applied for the position becoming responsible member for the Programme and it was accepted by the Council. The new Programme is going to start at the beginning of January. The Programme Manager is Clive Wilson, the deputy Programme Manager is Marion Mittermaier.

Contracts and invoices

Contracts and invoices were prepared and sent to the SRNWP member states. The signature of the contracts and the payments for the contribution fees are well advanced, however few countries didn't sign the contract yet and didn't fulfil the payment procedure (Cyprus didn't sign the contract yet and the contribution of Cyprus and Italy are still missing).

Financial status

Relations with other EUMETNET Programmes

Initial relations were built with other EUMETNET Programmes with special emphasis on the EUCOS Programme. C-SRNWP is represented (by its Programme Manager) in the E-SAT (EUCOS Scientific Advisory Team) meetings. EUCOS-SRNWP discussions were realised regarding the EUCOS impact study programmes and the evaluation of the Data Targeting System (DTS) trial period. Beside that contacts and discussions were realised with OPERA, AMDAR and WINPROF programmes. Participation in the autumn PB-OBS meeting stimulated further exchanges with other EUMETNET programmes in general and observation related EUMETNET activities in particular.

List of main achievements in 2008

Hereafter the main outcomes of the programme will be listed:

• The SRNWP webpage was ported to the Hungarian Meteorological Service with the srnwp.met.hu address.
• The SRNWP Expert Teams (ET) were established (with membership from the five LAM Consortia) in the following numerical weather prediction subjects (as agree at the end of 2007): data assimilation and use of observations; diagnostics, validation and verification; dynamics and lateral boundary coupling; link with applications;physical parameterisation (upper air); predictability and EPS; surface and soil processes (model and data assimilation); system aspects.
• The Expert Teams agreed on their respective workplans and started its realisation.
• The SRNWP Advisory Committee was established (the members are the Consortia leaders) and two meetings were held (in May and October).
• Frequent email information exchange was realised with the SRNWP contact points and with the Advisory Committee.
• The annual EWGLAM/SRNWP meeting was organised (SRNWP Expert Teams had important role in the organisation of the scientific sessions of the EWGLAM meeting).
• The SRNWP Verification Programme (SRNWP-V) was promoted and then accepted by the EUMETNET Council.
• The responsible member for the SRNWP Interoperability Programme (SRNWP-I) was elected by the Council. The programme started at the beginning of September, 2008.
• Contracts and invoices were prepared and sent to all the C-SRNWP members.
• Initial contacts were taken with the fellow EUMETNET programmes.
• The Programme Manager participated in the E-SAT meeting and in the autumn session of the PB-OBS meeting.
• Quarterly reporting to the Executive Director and to the EUMETNET Council.

Summary, future plans

It is believed that the new structure of the C-SRNWP Programme was properly set during 2008 and the Advisory Committee and the Expert Teams were organised and started their respective activities. Two related SRNWP Programmes were accepted by the EUMETNET Council (one of them had been already started). As far as the future is concerned one of the primary objective for 2009 is to establish more close links with the other EUMETNET Programmes and moreover to propose some concrete ideas for the EUMETNET Council for the optimisation of the governance of the SRNWP Programmes together with some long-term strategic orientation in the field of numerical weather prediction.