Annual Report 2018, 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 20, 2019

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 2018 the following coordination efforts have been made.

Observation network design (support EUCOS, Obs-SET)

Input was prepared for the annual Obs-SET meeting on behalf of the SRNWP community. Outcomes of Observing System Experiments (with Mode-S data from Slovenia and Lidar data from Switzerland) from short-range NWP models have been collected to complement the picture shown by the global experiments. Outcomes of the DA side meeting (potential new observation types assimilated in LAMs) at the EWGLAM/SRNWP Meeting in autumn 2017 has been also communicated to Obs-SET.
In February 2018 a web-meeting was initiated by the C-SRNWP PM with OPERA to discuss the OPERA-SRNWP cooperation in the next programme phase (2019-2023). The main expectations from the side of SRNWP towards OPERA were formulated as: quality-control is needed for Doppler winds; timeliness for 3D volume data is important, harmonized meta-data is essential. These issues were also discussed at the Obs-SET Meeting and will be included in the OPERA programme proposal.

Preparation of the EWGLAM/SRNWP meeting

The EWGLAM/SRNWP meeting (1-4 October 2018) took place in Salzburg, Austria, on the kind invitation of ZAMG. The meeting had 85 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 about precipitation scales. The meeting included the SRNWP business meeting, where the activities within the EUMETNET Forecasting Area and within the C-SRNWP Programme have been presented. The role of C-SRNWP in the next EUMETNET phase was also discussed. A special session on "Research to Operations" was also organized which discussed the challenges of implementing new model releases in the operational chain.
Activities of the C-SRNWP Project were discussed after the main program at the SRNWP Advisory ET (AET) meeting.

EMS Annual Meeting: EUMETNET Session

At the EMS Annual Meeting (3-7 September 2018, Budapest, Hungary) a session on EUMETNET in general and C-SRNWP and SRNEP-EPS II in particular was organized:

OSA1.10: Challenges in High Resolution Short Range NWP at European level including forecaster-developer cooperation

Ten abstracts were received in the session (8 oral and 2 poster presentations) which covered topics like DA impact studies, Global Lake Database and forecaster-model developer cooperation. The session was well attended by the audience (around 70 attendees). The session will be organized again at the EMS Annual Meeting 2019.

Support for the Global Lake Data Base

Under the coordination of the EUMETNET C-SRNWP Programme a lake data base is being developed (8500 EUR yearly financial contribution from EUMETNET). This global lake data base (GLDB) comprises valuable information regarding lake depths and lake bathymetry for NWP models. Due to the unavailability of the originally planned person a new responsible person (Olga Toptunova from Russia, who will mainly work at FMI on GLDB) had to be identified, who worked on GLDB during 2018. Results were summarized in an oral presentation at the EMS Annual Meeting 2018.

C-SRNWP Surface Data Pool

The SRNWP Surface Data Pool is coordinated by the C-SRNWP Programme, with important in-kind contribution from Germany and Greece.
A potential overlap between the Data Pool and the freely accessible Fluxnet network was investigated but it was found that although some parameters are overlapping it is still useful to maintain the Data Pool. During 2018 the usage increased as compared to previous years: 9 new users registered and 741 monthy files were downloaded during the year.

C-SRNWP in the next EUMETNET Phase

In the next programme phase C-SRNWP will be a module in the NWP-Cooperation programme, next to SRNWP-EPS and Post-processing. The drafting of the requirements were finished in March 2018 and the spring Assembly accepted them. For C-SRNWP next to the existing task three new activities were proposed and accepted:

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.

The session organized at the EMS Annual Meeting served as an excellent opportunity to communicate the aims and results of the C-SRNWP Programme.

5. Financial report

Provided separately.

6. Risks and issues (including (incorporated or as an annex) the Risk Register)

None to report.

7. Programme change requests

None.

8. Outlook for 2019

See the Programme Decision of the programme NWP Cooperation.