News

The annual meetings of the Computing Representatives and the Security Representatives took place from 13 to 16 May 2008.

The World Modelling Summit for Climate Prediction was hosted by ECMWF from 6 to 9 May 2008, and fully funded through wide-ranging international sponsorship.

ECMWF hosted the GRAS Satellite Application Facility (SAF) Workshop on the "Applications of GPS radio occultation measurements" from 16 to 18 June 2008.

The ECMWF annual seminar took place from 1 to 4 September. The title of this year's seminar was: "Parametrization of sub-grid physical processes".

France, as part of its Presidency of the European Union, and the European Commission jointly held a Forum in Lille, France, on 16 and 17 September 2008 to mark the launch of the first GMES services.

Every second year, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) hosts a workshop on the use of high performance computing in meteorology.

About 35 leading scientists from outside ECMWF participated in the workshop on Atmosphere-Ocean Interaction, which took place from 10 to 12 November.

His Excellency Georg Boomgaarden, German Ambassador in London, visited the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) on 25 November 2008. He was accompanied by Ms. Petra Bethge, First Secretary Transport Affairs at the Embassy.

Météo France, the UK Met Office and ECMWF jointly organised a dedicated workshop on the use of GIS systems in meteorology. The workshop was held at ECMWF, Reading, from 24 to 26 November 2008, and was a great success with over 100 participants from various disciplines and organisations worldwide.

Chaired by its President Dr Adérito Vicente Serrão from Portugal, the ECMWF Council held its 70th session in Reading on 2-3 December 2008.