Radiative transfer calculations in numerical weather prediction (NWP) and climate models require reliable information about aerosol concentration in the atmosphere, combined with data on aerosol optical properties. Data from the Copernicus atmosphere monitoring service (CAMS) and European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) were implemented to the limited area, short-range HARMONIE-AROME NWP model.

The latitude-longitude grid is the most widely used global coordinate system for various purposes but its polar problems hinder its applications. Spherical multiple-cell (SMC) grid is developed to tackle the problems and uses unstructured technique and quad-tree like mesh refinement. It uses a fixed reference direction to define vector components near the pole for improved polar performance. It has been used in ocean surface wave models and possible applications in other models are explored.

This paper proposes a new generic method to define and detect wind gusts from high-resolution wind velocity data. The method describes any specific gust by an amplitude and period and allows the detection of individual gusts in time using wavelet-analysis. The result of a full gust analysis using this method yields a so-called characteristic gust distribution for the respective wind velocity data, which can serve as a direct link to the physical impact a particular gust has on e.g. an aircraft.

A spatialization of extreme daily temperatures (called ANASTASIA) had been produced on a 1 km regular grid over France. The production covers 1947 to present period. Validation shows good quality after the 1960s and temporal homogeneity at national scale from the 1970s. The ANASTASIA production is useful for temperature real-time monitoring and detection of heat and cold wave episodes over France.

Environmental education characteristically deal with observable natural phenomena. Atmospheric and marine whirls include a wide scale and some of them can be easily modeled even in a school laboratory which can be a great motivating force for the students to learn more about the physics of these phenomena. This paper demonstrates the introductory steps of the elaboration of a learning material about the atmospheric eddies and shows how can be connected the formal and non-formal teaching methods.

This is a web-based toolbox created to support decision-making process by water managers in Spanish reservoirs. It provides a set of tools to explore hydrologic variability linked to climate variability and a precipitation/reservoir inflow seasonal forecast over Spain.

In order to analyze the impact on long time series by the transition from manual to automatic sunshine duration devices, parallel measurements of German climate reference stations are used. The different measurement principles (glass sphere and photodiode) cause systematic differences between the observations. With a linear regression model (used to adjust the automatic measurements) we want to prevent breaks in long time series of daily sunshine duration.

We have described a methodology for ensemble member’s weighting of operational seasonal forecasting systems based on an enhanced prediction of a driver of climate variability strongly affecting certain climate variables (e.g. temperature, precipitation) over a certain region. We have applied it to the North Atlantic Oscillation influence on the Iberian Peninsula winter precipitation. This approach is fully general and consequently applicable to any other SFS providing a skilful NAO signal.

In the frame of MEDSCOPE project, a seasonal forecast empirical model for the Mediterranean is proposed. It uses a sub regions based set up, with different inputs for every area, from an initial set of global climate indices. However, is configurated to be able to easily incorporate other sources of information. Results show spatially consistent structure, and measurements of its skill shows it performs at the level (and better over some areas) of main dynamical models for seasonal forecasting.

The aim of the project is to build a device to measure atmospheric climate variables and to demonstrate and explain some weather phenomenon. The observations are stored in a database, the data archive and visualization of the data are accessible through a webpage. Students from other schools can get involved in the measurements with their own built devices and can upload their own measurements to the common database. We could create a weather map and a network of minimeteo stations for schools.

In May 2017, E-AMDAR service temporarily increased the number of aircraft data over France, especially from from planes ascending from or descending towards French airports. This was the opportunity to check the impact of these additional data on forecast skill scores in AROME-France model. An OSE was carried out by removing about 14 % of E-AMDAR data but a critical step before the OSE was to identify which data could be considered as supplementary. Results of the one-month OSE are discussed.

Solar radiation is the second main important factors for plant growth after temperature. More precisely, PAR, which stands for Photosynthetically Active Radiation, is the portion of the solar spectrum that is efficient for photosynthesis. Due to the scarcity of ground measurements, researchers have developed methods to estimate this variable from satellite imagery. This paper compares several methods to assess satellite-derived PAR against measurements in the UK and in France.

In the German regional climate modeling project ReKliEs-De changes in temperature and precipitation indices are calculated from a multi model ensemble for the end of the 21st century. The results for the mitigation scenario RCP2.6 are compared to the results of the “business as usual” scenario RCP8.5. The increase of mean annual temperature and of the number of summer days will be around 3 times higher and in summer, the increase of dry days could be twice as high in RCP8.5 compared to RCP2.6.

Meteorological observations are essential for the initialization of numerical weather prediction (NWP) forecast. A common observation preprocessing system (OPLACE) has been built up to facilitate the use of meteorological observations and deliver them in an appropriate format for data assimilation in the NWP system ALADIN. The OPLACE data sources, preprocessing steps and means to make preprocessed observations available are described.

The PannEx is a Regional Hydroclimate Project (RHP) of the GEWEX project. A gridded meteorological dataset is available for the PannEx region as part of the CarpatClim database. The objectives of this study are: (i) to compute (ET₀) for the CarpatClim dataset in the period 1961–2010 on the daily scale by using the Penman-Monteith method, and (ii) to compare ET₀ with the classical Thornthwaite estimates of PET.

In our study, we present the new precipitation record directly obtained on a high mountain glacier in East Siberia (East Sayan Range) during summer periods of 2015–2017 using automatic weather station. We compared the record with weather stations and reanalysis data and quantified their accuracy. We analyzed the relationship between the record and the processes of atmospheric circulation and classified the processes affecting the precipitation, and defined the source of the atmospheric moisture.

The goal of an interdisciplinary team of scientists at the Climate Service Center Germany (GERICS) was to make the findings of the special report IPCC SR1.5 more accessible to the citizens of Hamburg. Therefore, a flyer was created that is understandable to non-climate scientists, visually attractive and generates interest. In this article, the authors provide insights into their teamwork, the underlying guiding principles as well as lessons learned that are of great value for future projects.

European NMHSs are progressing towards impact-oriented and impact-based warnings. This publication gives an overview of warning implementation as surveyed at 32 of the 37 NMHSs participating in the EUMETNET Meteoalarm project. Topics adressed include warning format, legislation and production process of warnings, dissemination and verification of warnings, impact databases, warning strategy and cooperation and cross-border collaboration. Obstacles are identified and trends are discussed.

The monthly mean soil moisture forecasts for forestry are been developed in the Finnish Meteorological Institute in cooperation with Finnish end-users. Such forecasts help in timber harvesting planning, and forecasts could large economic value. Therefore the skillfulness of forecasts was measured. Throughout the year the first month was skillful, and after that it can be hard to say if the forecasts are better than the normal conditions. Winter forecasts are a bit better than summer forecasts.

In this work, preliminary numerical simulations with the NWO COSMO model including Urban parameterization have been performed. This work concerns simulations over a small domain located in southern Italy, in order to test the capabilities of the model in reproducing the main climate features of Urban Heat Islands over this area. Numerical results encourage further investigation and development of urban parameterization in very high-resolution configurations.

Wind speeds at turbine hub heights are scarcely measured and often replaced by numerical datasets when simulating wind power time series for various impact studies. Can we trust these modelled wind speeds? This work investigates five wind-speed datasets, comparing them to actual wind-speed and wind-power observations in France. They show various skills in terms of bias and hourly variability, leading to more or less realistic wind-power simulations at the local scale.

Ensemble forecasting has gained popularity as a means of handling the limitations inherent to predicting the behavior of high dimensional systems with strong sensitivity to initial conditions. Initial conditions are sampled and propagated through the model equations, leading to a set of predictions. So far, this set has been interpreted in a probabilistic way. Here, we question this choice and show that possibility theory may be a sounder approach, especially in the case of extreme events.

High-resolution precipitation observation based on signal attenuation in a Commercial Microwave Link (CML) network is an emerging technique that is becoming more and more used. Here a pragmatic method for estimating the optimal resolution is presented. The method is demonstrated using a CML network and a representative precpitation pattern in Stockholm, Sweden. One application would be feasibility investigations in cities considering starting CML-based precipitation observations.

Recently an objective method was suggested to translate realistic vegetation characteristics into spatially varying values of effective roughness. This parameter allows prediction of wind flow over vegetation using models, without incorporating local drag forces in each grid volume of a three-dimensional model domain. Results of the flow simulations over different forested sites show that an approach based on a roughness representation of forest is appropriate only for the flat terrain.

This paper describes the approach and the process used for the development of TOPaCS, a contribution of RTC Italy to the WMO Global Campus initiative for ongoing continuous professional development in Meteorological and Climate Services. TOPaCS is open access and created under a Creative Commons licence, facilitating knowledge sharing and dissemination. TOPaCS is now available to the community of Climate Services through the platform www.climateservices.it.

Statistics of the frequency and intensity of snow bands affecting the Finnish coast during years 2000–2010 was conducted. A set of criteria for meteorological variables favoring the formation of the snow bands were applied to regional climate model (RCA4) data. We found on average three days per year with favorable conditions for coastal sea-effect snowfall. The heaviest convective snowfall events were detected most frequently over the southern coastline.

In the case of coastal wind farms, the wind that produces power simultaneously contributes to the cooling of high-voltage overhead conductors. Ideally this would allow for increased power transmission or decreased dimensions and cost of the conductor wires. In this study we investigate how well the wind speed in coastal wind farms is correlated with wind along a 75 km long 330 kW power line towards inland.

In this study we look for a new knowledge of the costal boundary layer processes through analysis of extreme phenomena which include the verification of numerical modeling data outputs from the WRF mesometological model for selected period with high availability of extreme wind profiles by acoustic sounding of the atmosphere. The work is within the frame of research projects REPLICA (extReme Events and wind ProfiLe In a Coastal Area) – DM 14/1 26 May 2020.