ECMWF 2003 Annual Seminar

The one week seminar in 2003 was on Recent developments in data assimilation for atmosphere and ocean. The seminar was held from 8 to 12 September.

Three dimensional variational assimilation (3D-Var) methods have been widely adopted for operational use, and there is widening operational adoption of four-dimensional variational assimilation (4D-Var) methods.

The purpose of the seminar was to give a pedagogical overview of recent developments in atmospheric and ocean data assimilation, and to outline the likely lines of development in the next five to ten years, including implementation of more complete physical representations in 4D-Var, longer assimilation windows, reduced rank Kalman filters, ensemble Kalman filters, and diagnostics.

Recent developments in data assimilation of relevance to ensemble forecasting were presented. In addition there were discussions on modelling and assimilating data on variations in atmospheric composition due to trace gases and aerosol.

The annual seminar forms part of the ECMWF educational programme.

Presentations -- Proceedings