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ECMWF's core mission is to:
- produce numerical weather forecasts and monitor the Earth system
- carry out scientific and technical research to improve forecast skill
- maintain an archive of meteorological data
We also provide advanced training to scientific staff in our Member and Co-operating States and assist the WMO with its programmes.
We operate two services from the EU's Copernicus Earth observation programme – the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) and the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) – and contribute to the Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS).
To deliver these activities, we provide:
- global numerical weather forecasts four times per day
- air quality analysis
- atmospheric composition monitoring
- climate monitoring
- ocean circulation analysis
- hydrological predictions
- fire risk predictions
ECMWF, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) are the three organisations entrusted by the EU to deliver the first phase of the Destination Earth initiative; our responsibility is for building the digital twin engine and the development of the first two digital twins – on weather-induced extremes and climate change adaptation.
Streams of work
Global forecasts
ECMWF produces operational ensemble-based analyses and predictions that describe the range of possible scenarios and their likelihood of occurrence. ECMWF's forecasts cover time frames ranging from medium-range, to monthly and seasonal, and up to a year ahead.
Find out more about our global forecasts.
NWP science
ECMWF carries out research on all aspects of global weather prediction relevant to predictions up to one year ahead.
Find out more about NWP science.
Environmental services
ECMWF’s Integrated Forecasting System developing into a more complete Earth system model has created an opportunity to analyse and predict other aspects of the natural environment than purely the weather.
Find out more about our role in providing environmental services.
Serving meteorology
By bringing together resources from across its Member and Co-operating States, ECMWF serves its community by providing world-leading weather forecasts, specialist software, and one of the largest meteorological data archives in the world.
Find out more about serving meteorology.
Supercomputing
Improving the skill and detail of ECMWF predictions is a computationally expensive process. ECMWF's high-performance computing facility has always been amongst the most powerful for weather forecasting in Europe and provides users with leading-edge HPC technologies.
Find out more about supercomputing at ECMWF.