News

Jean Labrousse, the second Director at ECMWF, sadly passed away on Saturday 9 July 2011.

In response to demands from many users, the ERA-Interim reanalysis dataset has been extended by a decade and now includes data from 1 January 1979 to the present.

A new phase of funding has been secured until July 2014 for the pre-operational atmospheric monitoring and forecasting service of the European programme Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES).

A major upgrade to the ECMWF seasonal forecasting system has been made operational.

A workshop was held at ECMWF on "Diurnal cycles and the stable atmospheric boundary layer" from 7 to 10 November 2011.

ECMWF received the first delivery of nine frames of computer equipment from IBM for the mid-life upgrade of the High Performance Computing Facility (HPCF).

An updated version of the ECMWF forecasting system (known as cycle 37R3) was implemented on 15 November 2011, containing a collection of improvements to the forecast model, the data assimilation and the ensemble prediction system.

A second weekly run of the ECMWF monthly forecast has been introduced, running every Monday (00 UTC) to provide an update to the main Thursday run.

A co-operation agreement between ECMWF and the Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System (RIMES) entered into force on 8 February 2012. The purpose of the agreement is to establish a general framework for the exchange of information and of expertise between the Parties.

From 27 February until 2 March 2012, ECMWF hosted the final General Assembly of the European project Monitoring Atmospheric Composition and Climate (MACC) combined with the kick-off Assembly of its follow-on project MACC-II.