News

On 1 August 1979 ECMWF produced its first operational medium-range forecast for Member States. This major achievement marked the first milestone on the road towards producing useful weather forecasts beyond two to three days.

ECMWF news highlights in the first seven months of 2019 include an upgrade of ECMWF’s Integrated Forecasting System that greatly improved forecasts; a series of events to drive forward numerical weather prediction; an assessment of ground-breaking new wind data; and the appointment of a new Director of Copernicus Services.

Weather observation specialists met modelling experts at ECMWF from 10 to 13 June 2019 to discuss how to maximise the benefits of observational campaigns for weather forecasting and vice versa.

The summer 2019 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.

Creative and interactive sessions took pride of place in this year’s Using ECMWF’s Forecasts meeting, which took place at the Centre from 3 to 6 June. The meetings give ECMWF data users an opportunity to learn about the Centre’s plans, new products and services.

The global forecasting system of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) was successfully upgraded on 9 July, making air quality forecasts more accurate and robust. CAMS is implemented by ECMWF on behalf of the EU.

The ECMWF Annual Report 2018 is now available online. The report reviews improvements in forecast performance, advances in research, the Centre’s contributions to Europe’s Copernicus Earth observation programme, and preparations for the new data centre in Italy.

Registration is open for a workshop at ECMWF on 25 and 26 September to review progress in the development of new I/O techniques for supercomputing at the exascale.

Jean-Noël Thépaut has been appointed as ECMWF’s new Director of Copernicus Services from 1 October 2019, when Juan Garces de Marcilla steps down from the post. Jean-Noël has been a key player in the ECMWF team which has successfully implemented two of the EU’s Copernicus Earth observation services.

Dick Dee, one of the key figures in the development of global weather and climate reanalysis at ECMWF, is leaving the Centre on 28 June on reaching retirement age, but only after overseeing the transition from the hugely successful ERA-Interim to the state-of-the-art ERA5 reanalysis.