News

The European summer of 2021 stands out for great heat, regional fires, heavy rain and devastating floods, which were reflected in the output of ECMWF and the EU’s Copernicus Services which we operate or contribute to.

ECMWF news highlights in the first seven months of 2021 include an upgrade of ECMWF’s Integrated Forecasting System; projects and workshops to drive forward weather science; and new developments regarding the EU-funded Copernicus services implemented by ECMWF.

As part of the EU’s Horizon 2020 project APPLICATE, ECMWF has reviewed the challenges that limit forecast skill in Arctic regions. Advances have been made in coupled modelling, process-based diagnostics, and the effective use of observations and data assimilation.

The summer 2021 issue of the ECMWF Newsletter is now available. As well as news about ECMWF staff and events, it features articles about new developments and the use that can be made of ECMWF products.

ECMWF is to continue as the computational centre for the hydrological forecasting activities of the EU-funded Copernicus Emergency Management Service for a further six years. The computational centre helps to deliver the European and Global Flood Awareness Systems, EFAS and GloFAS.

ECMWF has signed an agreement with the European Commission to continue implementing the EU-funded Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) and Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) for the next seven years.

ECMWF has opened a forum for its users to post comments on topics related to weather and forecasting, join conversations and provide feedback to the Centre.

ECMWF needs up-to-date satellite observations of weather-related variables to initialise its forecasts and to conduct research. Its partnership with EUMETSAT is essential in this regard.

The Report reviews improvements in forecast performance, advances in research, the Centre’s contributions to Europe’s Copernicus Earth observation programme, preparations for the new data centre in Italy, and how we have worked through the COVID-19 pandemic.

ECMWF researchers have used detailed soil and weather observations up to about 200 metres above ground from several observational super-sites in Europe to assess and improve different aspects of our weather forecasts.