News

ECMWF supports the national meteorological services of its Member and Co-operating States and other users by providing them with state-of-the-art global weather predictions. A product launched in June enables users to visualise atmospheric conditions from the ground up to the lower stratosphere anywhere in the world.

The Aeolus satellite was launched successfully by the European Space Agency from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on 22 August 2018. The mission is expected to improve weather forecasts by providing vital information on winds across the globe.

The first seven months of 2018 at ECMWF have seen a major upgrade of the Integrated Forecasting System; a series of events to drive forward numerical weather prediction; the launch of the Climate Data Store; and the appointment of a new Director of Computing.

The summer 2018 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 has substantially increased the amount of weather prediction data it makes available free of charge to Members of the World Meteorological Organization. The provision of the data is part of the Centre’s obligations as a World Meteorological Centre.

Finding better ways to couple small-scale physical processes and large-scale atmospheric dynamics in Earth system models could help to improve global weather forecasts, according to experts meeting at ECMWF from 10 to 12 July.

Registration for ECMWF’s 2018 Annual Seminar on Earth system assimilation closes on Friday, 27 July. Attendance is free for participants from ECMWF’s Member and Co-operating States.

Participants in this year’s ECMWF user meeting from 5 to 8 June 2018 tested the use of virtual reality to visualise weather data. They also heard about ECMWF product updates and showed software or services developed in ECMWF’s Member and Co-operating States.

Dr Martin Palkovič has been appointed to become ECMWF’s next Director of Computing from 1 October 2018. He succeeds Prof. Adrian Wander, who will step down after a transition period to ensure a seamless handover.

Thirty years ago ECMWF started a major project to rewrite the computer code of its forecasting system. One of the key players in the project, Mats Hamrud, says the system he and his colleagues went on to develop has stood the test of time but needs to keep evolving to meet new challenges.