Annual Report 2016, C-SRNWP Programme

author:

Balázs Szintai, C-SRNWP PM
Hungarian Meteorological Service
1024 Budapest, Kitaibel Pal utca 1., Hungary

submitted to:

EIG EUMETNET Secretariat

date:

February 24, 2017

1. Headlines

2. Status of programmatic targets

The main activity of the C-SRNWP programme is the scientific and technical (operational) coordination between the six LAM Consortia in Europe (ALADIN, COSMO, HIRLAM, LACE, SEECOP 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, 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 II, ASIST) and Observation (EUCOS, OPERA) Projects/Activities is done. During 2016 the following coordination efforts have been made.

Coordination with OPERA for enhancing radar data assimilation

Organization of a workshop on radar data assimilation together with Elena Saltikoff (OPERA PM) and Klaus Stephan (OPERA User Group). The workshop was held after the EWGLAM Meeting in Rome on 6-7 October. Invitations were sent to OPERA User Group and also via the C-SRNWP Expert Team on Data Assimilation. 17 experts from all European NWP consortia (except for SEECOP) attended the workshop. The main issue discussed at the workshop was data preprocessing and quality control.

Observation network design (support EUCOS, Obs-SET)

Input was prepared for the annual Obs-SET meeting on behalf of the SRNWP community. DFS (Degrees of Freedom for Signal) results as well as outcomes of Observing System Experiments from short-range NWP models have been collected to complement the picture shown by the global experiments. Latest experience with AMDAR-humidity data, high resolution radiosoundings and snow observations has also been shown.

Coordination with ECMWF regarding the extension of IFS EPS boundary conditions for very high resolution EPS systems

ECMWF started to set up the additional 06 and 18 UTC global ENS test runs during summer 2015. Several NMSs tested the data and it proved applicable for Short Range EPS systems. At the moment LBCs are provided at hourly frequency (without archiving) until +90h, implementation of archiving is scheduled for spring 2017.

Preparation of the EWGLAM/SRNWP meeting

The EWGLAM/SRNWP meeting (3-6 October 2016) took place in Rome, Italy, organized by COMET. The meeting had over 90 participants. The programme was drafted by the C-SRNWP PM with the help of the Expert Team chairs (Data Assimilation, EPS, Link with Applications, Verification, Surface Processes). Presentations are accessible here.

The special topic of this year was nowcasting applications. The meeting included the SRNWP business meeting, where the activities within the EUMETNET Forecasting Programme and within the C-SRNWP Project have been presented. The role of C-SRNWP in the next EUMETNET phase was also discussed.

Activities of the C-SRNWP Project were discussed after the main program at the SRNWP Advisory ET (AET) meeting.

SEECOP – new NWP consortium in Europe

In autumn 2015 EUMETNET STAC acknowledged SEECOP (South East European Consortium for Operational weather Prediction) as a new NWP consortium in Europe. At the same time the C-SRNWP Advisory Expert Team gave a list of recommendations to SEECOP which should be considered by SEECOP in order to achieve a good scientific cooperation with other NWP consortia in Europe. In the first half of 2016 SEECOP experts made steps towards achieving these goals, especially elaborating the working structure of SEECOP, writing the science plan and investigating possibilities for source code management. On 27 June 2016 the second meeting of SEECOP experts took place, where the C-SRNWP PM was also invited. Balázs Szintai attended the meeting, and in his address described the structure and plans of both EUMETNET and C-SRNWP. At the end of 2016 two SEECOP experts joined two C-SRNWP ETs (Data Assimilation and Verification).

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 for NWP models. On the EUMETNET STAC Meeting in spring 2016 the C-SRNWP PM presented the GLDB with the aim of receiving funding for the maintenance and further development of the database. STAC and PFAC decided that the funding for 2017 (8500 EUR) should be included in the Forecasting Programme budget, which was acknowledged by Assembly.

C-SRNWP Surface Data Pool

The usage of the surface data pool is very low (about 3 requests in one year), thus it should be tried to increase the usage. In autumn 2015 AET agreed that a first step should be that C-SRNWP PM asks the users of the data pool why the usage is so low and what should be done with the data (perhaps more quality control, etc..) to increase the usage. This questionnaire was prepared by the C-SRNWP PM and was circulated in spring 2016 to 39 registered data pool users. Unfortunately, only 3 answers were received. The general conclusion is that some developments would be needed regarding data format and quality control and more advertisement would be needed. The C-SRNWP PM will prepare a flyer in the first half of 2017 for this purpose.

Coordination with ASIST and SRNWP EPS II

The developments within the ASIST and SRNWP EPS II projects are closely followed by the C-SRNWP PM, who was invited as an observer to the ASIST Kick-off Meeting (13 January, Vienna) and to the First Workshop of the SRNWP EPS II project (17-19, May, Bologna).

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:

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 during this period, a contribution to the planning of the European observation network has been made where the needs of short range forecasting has been taken into account. This might lead to improved short range forecasts (potentially with lower costs) through an improved data network to assimilate. A significant coordination effort was made to exchange information with the newly organized NWP consortium SEECOP. The importance of the Global lake database was successfully presented to EUMETNET STAC and a funding for 2017 was secured for the maintenance and further development of this database.

5. Financial report

Please find it in a separate excel file.

6. Risks and issues

None to report.

7. Programme change requests

None.

8. Outlook

The most important SRNWP related coordination goals for the 2017 are to