WWRP report to the CAS Management Group

Gilbert BrunetWWRP/JSC Chair

Work Group MeetingsSERA Working Group 12-13 October, 2009 (Trieste)

Group on Tropical Meteorology Research 23-24 October 2009 (Shanghai)

Meso-scale Working Group 26-27 August 2010 (NCAR)

SERA Working Group 27-29 September 2010 (Toulouse)

Verification Working Group 27-29 September 2010 (Toulouse)

The primary purpose of the WG SERA is to advance the science of the social and economic application of weather-related information and services. This will be accomplished in part through the development, review and promotion of societal and economic-related demonstration projects focused on high-impact weather (HIW) and information.

SERA Scope and Research Priorities

SERA Working Group Structure

Core Membership

• social scientists • users • engagers

WWRP Expert Liaison (Verification)

WWRP Expert Liaison (THORPEX-TIGGE)

WWRP Expert Liaison (Mesoscale Weather,

THORPEX-RCs,etc.)

Research & Application Interest

Groups

Projects, Demonstrations &

Testbeds

WMO Programme Management (THORPEX-EC, WMO Forum/PWS, CCl-

OPAGs3/4…)

Other Connections (IFRC, IAEM, Earth System Science Partnership, GEO, WHO,

WTO, World Bank, NMHAs, industry organizations, IIASA, etc.)

ICSU/ISSC/ISDR Integrated Research on

Disaster Risk (IRDR)

SERA WG Meeting #1 – October 2009, Trieste, Italy

Linda Anderson-Berry (Bureau of Meteorology, Australia)

Kwabena Asomanin Anaman (Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration)

Jacqueline Frick (Swiss Federal Research Institute)

Paul Kovacs (Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction, Canada)

Nanette Lomarda (WG SERA Secretariat)

Brian Mills (Environment Canada)

Michael Staudinger (Zentralanstallt f. Meteorologie und Geodynamik, Austria)

Angelika Wirtz (Munich Reinsurance, Germany)

Guests

Aïda Diongue-Niang (Senegal Meteorological Agency)

David Parsons (WWRP Secretariat)

Eugene Poolman (South African Weather Service) ICTP, Trieste

SERA Tasks (WWRP Strategic Plan)

1. Finalize the initial WGSERA membership and establish a three-year WG meeting schedule with the WWRP Secretariat - done

2. Clearly define mutual and complementary roles with the ICSU Planning Group on Natural and Human induced Hazards and Disasters (ICSU IRDR).

I. forming a joint ICSU-IRDR/WMO WWRP-SERA Working Group as recommended by CAS

II. having an Ex Officio representative of WMO- WWRP on the IRDR Steering Committee

3. Establish a basic inventory of related projects, capacity, contacts, and interest in SERA through consultation with WG members, NMHSs, WWRP WGs, THORPEX Regional Committees, other WMO programmes, professional societies, and academic institutions.

4. Develop the architecture and content for an international SERAwx web resource for social scientists and users (either on the WMO-WWRP site or an external server).

5. Joint meeting/session with the JWGVR to define and scope a series of regional and sector based case applications that cut across nowcasting, meso-, and sub-seasonal scales of prediction/decision-making – 27 to 29 September 2010

6. Develop, test and evaluate a SERA-friendly TIGGE dataset from multiple user-perspectives in conjunction with the THORPEX-TIGGE WG.

7. Prepare an outline scoping out a multi-year project to assess the global societal and economic benefits (and costs) of weather information.

SERA Meeting #1 Decisions/Actions

General Many WWRP projects were conceived and planned without substantive SERA involvement/consultation at their inception—this must change. Potential funding opportunities for SERA-related interests should be identified.The WWRP Secretariat/JSC Chair should seek approval to allocate new funds (up to US$50k/yr) for basic societal and economic research and applications to advance SERA initiatives. It is recommended that the WWRP Division should acquire familiarity with and experience managing or conducting socio-economic research. 

Africa A fully-costed African THORPEX Implementation Plan would make it easier to identify and obtain funding. A approach to using the MunichRe impact event information in support of the THORPEX Africa High Impact Weather Information System database will be developed.

SERA Meeting #1 Decisions/Actions

Decision/Action: WG SERA will develop a Warning Information System “Pre-Demonstration Project” which will include a GlFS-TIGGE/TIGGE-LAM evaluation component and applications derived from existing activities (e.g., MeteoAlarm, MAP D-Phase, GIN, SWFDPs other EPS applications). J. Frick, B. Mills, L. Anderson-Berry, M. Staudinger, E. Poolman to define specific research questions, opportunities to leverage existing or planned projects, and ultimately a plan/proposal (J. Frick to inform WG SERA on GIN activity before March 2010; report on progress at next WG SERA meeting, June-July 2010).

SERA #2 – 27 to 29 September 2010

NEW OPPORTUNITIES AND UPDATES

KULTURISK and other Swiss Federal Research Institute activitiesSouth Pacific Severe Weather Forecast Disaster risk reduction Demonstration Project (SWFDDP) and/or 2009 Bush Fire event in AustraliaEconomic approaches to measure the impacts of extreme weather eventsAfrican Severe Weather Forecast Demonstration Project (SWFDP), South African FloodForecasting Guidance project, THORPEX Southern Hemisphere Regional Committee

Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics: RDP SNOW V10

Requirements• High winds• Fog/Ceiling/Visibility• Precipitation Type/Intensity• Road weather• Orographic Enhancement• Wind directions• Rapidly changing in space/time• Narrow confined valley• Coastal

End User RequirementsThreshold Matrix for Downhill, Slalom and Giant Slalom (from Chis Doyle)

New Snow (24 hours)

Wind Visibility Rain Wind Chill

Critical Decision point

> 30 cm Constant above 17 m/s or gusts > 17 m/s

< 20 m on the entire course>

15mm in 6 hours or less

> -20

Significant decision point

> 15 cm and < 30 cm

Constant 11 m/s to 17 m/s <

20 m on portions of the course

Mixed precipitation

Factor to consider

> 5 cm Gusts above 14 m/s but < 17 m/s>

>20m but <50m on whole or part of the course

Whistler Peak

Instrument Sites on Whistler

Soundings

MR RadarRadiometerCeilometer

Hot PlatesParsivelPOSSSnow PhotoSnow Gauges

1800

1200

  METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS : VALID AT 2010-02-13 16:00 GMT

  PAST NOW  NOWCAST

  -6h -5h -4h -3h -2h -1h +15 +30 +45 +1h +15 +30 +45 +2h +3h +4h +5h +6h

GMT TIME 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

WIND [m/s] 10 10 12 10 9 9 8 8 8 10 10 10 10 10 15 20 22 15 15

GUSTS [m/s] 0 0 5 0 0 0 3 3 3 5 5 15 15 15 10 15 15 10 10

VIS [m] 100+ 100+ 100+ 100+ 100+ 100+ 100+ 100+ 100+ 100+ 100+ 100+ 100+ 100+ 100+ 100+ 100+ 100+ 100+

SNOW[cm]

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

RAIN[mm]

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

T [C] -18 -18 -16 -15 -15 -14 -13 -13 -13 -10 -14 -16 -15 -16 -16 -16 -16 -16 -16

WIND CHILL [C] -20 -20 -20 -18 -18 -18 -15 -15 -15 -12 -15 -20 -20 -20 -20 -25 -25 -20 -20

SNOW V10 Venue Forecast:Whistler Creekside Downhill/Slalom/Giant Slalom

Pig Alley/Mid Station/Timing Flats

Click on box would give reason for alert and indication of confidence (from forecaster or verification scores) in forecast. All boxes would likely contain a range of values or most likely value.

Prototype Product Under Discussion

BAMS August 2010

Integrated Meso-scale Research Environments (IMRE)

Definitions and goals

To prepare a reference data set (including all relevant information, not only meteorological) for a particular problem that is relevant in meso-scale meteorology

Examples of relevant problems (meso-scale DA; convection; complex terrain; surface exchange incl. urban; predictability)

Instructions on how meso-scale models should in general be tested, how to separate error sources, how to verify etc.

Meso-scale Working Group

WG-MWFR publishes/updates/acknowledges a selection of test-bed cases where modelers can download the information, the validation data set & test their model on the case.

Goal for the WG would be that the ‘WG-MWFR’ test-bed (or IMRE) becomes a benchmark reference for meso-scale models.

Procedure

Meso-scale Working Group

Meso-scale Working Group

Meso-scale Working Group

Status of the Sochi-2014 RDP / FDP

Stephane Belair and

Jeanette Onvlee

Meeting of the Mesoscale Weather Forecasting Working GroupNCAR, Boulder, CO, USA, 26-27 August 2010

Meso-scale Working Group

REMINDER... Meteorological support for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games

A few slides from last year’s meeting at KNMI... based on a presentation provided by Dmitry Kiktev from Roshydromet

Two clusters of «Sochi-2014» Olympic venues

Ice sports competitions

Snow sports competitions

Observational network in the region of the Games Current atmospheric monitoring network is sparse and not representative enough given the complexity of the region and high Olympic demands. Ground-based observations are mostly concentrated along the coast. Vast sea area from one side and nearby high mountains (up to 3 km and more) on another side of Krasnaya Polyana are virtually uncovered with contact observations.

In 2009-2010 more than 30 automatic stations should be added to enhance the existing observational network. Major part of these new stations will be located in close proximity to the Olympic venues.

+ 3-5 moored sea buoys 100-150 km away from the coast;+ 8 mobile automated meteorological stations;+ More frequent sounding at the nearest aerological stations;+ 5 Dopplers instead of existing outdated radars;+ Several profilers (2-3)….

(partially completed)

Sochi-2014

PROPOSED THEMES for the NOWCASTING/MESOSCALE RDP/FDP

Observations for winter nowcasting over complex terrain

Diagnosis, nowcasting, and short-range forecasting of multi-weather elements – wind speed and wind gust, visibility, fog, precipitation intensity and time

Mesoscale deterministic and ensemble prediction

High resolution deterministic and ensemble prediction (including downscaled surface systems and fog models)

Microphysics and other physical parameterizations

Assimilation of high-resolution data (including radar and other observations)

Verification based on remote sensing data

Societal Impacts... all these issues to be discussed at kick-off meeting.

Sochi-2014

Tokyo Metropolitan Area Convection Field Campaign

Masahito Ishihara and Kazuo Saito Meteorological Research Institute, Japan

and Masayuki Maki

National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention, Japan

with courtesy of Dr. Shigeto WatanabeGraduate School of Science, Hokkaido University, Japan

Meso-scale Working Group

Social Experiments on Resilient Cities for Extreme Weather

Theme 3 ： Social Experiments

【 Sociology 】

Evaluation and adaption the developed nowcasting system

(1) Social experiments in rescue services, risk management, infrastructure and education

(2) Recommendations for extreme weather resilient cities

Theme 2: Monitoring and Very-short Forecasting System

【 Engineering 】Developments collaborating with end users(1) Extreme weather nowcasting methods(2) Development of test-beds of nowcasting systems(3) Extreme weather database

Nowcasting

Hazard Map

Monitoring/Nowcasting System

Theme 1 ： Field Experiments

【 Meteorology 】To obtain new insight on mechanisms of extreme weather(1) Development of new technologies(2) Field campaign in the Tokyo area (3) Statistical analysis

Field campaign in the Tokyo Metropolitan

area

Understanding the mechanismNew observation

facilities

Several types of deep convection develop in the Tokyo Metropolitan area during the

warm season.

Meso-scale Working Group

Forecast verification method intercomparison project (ICP)Several members of the JWGFVR have participated in the ICP, which is an effort to provide useful information on new verification approaches that have been developed in the last few years. The initial focus has been on spatial verification approaches, including object-based methods, scale separation approaches, neighborhood methods, and field morphing approaches. The results of these studies will be published as a special collection in the journal Weather and Forecasting.

Outreach and other activitiesThe JWGFVR continues to maintain a website on verification: http://www.bom.gov.au/bmrc/wefor/staff/eee/verif/verif_web_page.html which contains a wide variety of information, and to maintain a discussion group on verification methods.

Joint Working Group on Forecast Verification Research (JWGFVR)

Verification of Tropical Cyclone Forecasts

Beth Ebert (BOM)Barb Brown (NCAR)Laurie Wilson (RPN)

Tony Eckel (ERT)

8th TIGGE Working Group Meeting22-24 February 2010, Geneva

New approaches for verifying TCs• Spatial verification methods

Precipitation andwind fields

Storm characteristics • location• size• intensity• shape, etc.

Document on TC verification – commented literature review to be written this year

Contents1. Introduction2. Verification strategy3. Reference data4. Verification methods5. Reporting guidelines6. SummaryReferencesAppendices:a. Brief description of scoresb. Guidelines for computing aggregate

statisticsc. Confidence intervals for verification scoresd. Examples of graphical verification products

CXML data exchange Recommendations from 2006 International

Workshop on Tropical CyclonesThe WMO should take all necessary action to:

• improve the communication between operational centres and facilitate the dissemination of all tropical cyclone-related NWP products, such as the deterministic and ensemble forecasts (including the full set of ensemble runs),

• make them available to all RSMCs, TCWCs and researchers in real-time.

WMO should investigate the most appropriate ways to achieve this goal:

• coordinate with the NWP and major operational centres (RSMCs and TCWCs) in order to define a set of resolvable tropical cyclone characteristics to be provided and timely disseminated by the NWP centres through the GTS (e.g. centre location, minimum sea level pressure, max wind, wind radii by quadrants, etc…) and define the appropriate standardised format,

• and/or find a WMO-sponsored dedicated reference centre (similarly to what has been done with the Severe Weather Information Centre for the dissemination of the analysis and forecast products issued by the main operational centres) able to host and maintain a single global data base of the tropical cyclone forecasts originating from the different NWP centres.

Near real time cyclone data exchange

http://cawcr.gov.au/bmrc/projects/THORPEX/TC

• Data exchanged via FTP (some sites require registration)

• TC data archived at NCAR at http://dss.ucar.edu/datasets/ds330.3/ under 'Data Access' and 'Internet Download'

• Data format is CXML (Cyclone XML), designed to exchange TC analyses, deterministic forecasts, and ensemble forecasts,

CXML track availability – 11 Feb 2010

Provider Analysis Deterministic Ensemble Up to date?

CMA t=0 fcst

MSC t=0 fcst

KMA t=0 fcst

STI t=0 fcst

UKMO t=0 fcst

JMA t=0 fcst

NCEP t=0 fcst

ECMWF

An update of possible consequences of climate change on tropical cyclones has been completed and published by the TC Panel’s Expert Team on Climate Change Impacts on Tropical Cyclones in the March 2010 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Nature Geoscience. The experts concluded that the total number of tropical cyclones worldwide will likely either decrease or remain unchanged. However, a likely increase in tropical cyclone intensity means that the frequency of the strongest tropical cyclones will more likely than not increase under the projected warming scenarios. The e-print of the full article is now available online at:http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/arep/wwrp/tmr/ETClimateImpactsOnTCs.html 

Tropical Meteorological Research

Relative to improvements in tropical cyclone tracks, progress in the prediction of the intensity and genesis of tropical cyclones by NWP systems has proven more difficult. Recent progress has been achieved by increasing model resolution. In addition, based on THORPEX research, there is strong evidence that targeted observations for tropical cyclones do have a beneficial impact and the resultant socio-economic benefit here can be large.

To address these issues, TCP is working closely with WWRP to promote the research and developments (R&Ds) in tropical cyclone prediction and its application to operational forecasting. The two Programmes jointly organize various international forums on a regular basis with a view to strengthening the interactions between researchers and operational forecasters, including the International Workshop on Tropical Cyclone (IWTC) and the International Workshop on Tropical Cyclone Landfall Processes (IWTCLP). Efforts are also made for active involvement of researchers in the annual/biennial sessions of TCP regional bodies.

Tropical Meteorological Research

The monsoon component has recently added three archive centres:  1.Centre for Monsoon Field Campaign Legacy Data Sets (Colorado State University, USA)

2.Monsoon Radar Meteorology Data Information Centre Radar Information Centre (Nagoya University, Japan)

3.Monitoring and Centre for Monitoring and Assessment System for Extreme Weather and Climate Events in Asia (Beijing Climate Centre-EAMAC, CMA)

Tropical Meteorological Research

Seventh International Workshop on Tropical Cyclones (IWTC-VII)(15-20 November 2010, La Réunion, France)

The main objectives of these workshops are:1) to examine current knowledge, forecasting and research trends on tropical cyclones from an integrated global perspective2) to report on these aspects and to offer recommendations for future forecasting studies and research with special regard to the varying needs of different regions.

The IWTC is one of WMO’s major quadrennial workshop series organized by WWRP and Tropical Cyclone Programme (TCP). It is a special and unique gathering of tropical cyclone researchers and warning specialists from all regions affected by tropical cyclones, including those from Members belonging to the WMO TCP regional bodies.

La Réunion, France

2nd Meeting of the WMO/CAS Expert Team on Weather Modification Research (ET-WMR)

National Center of Meteorology and Seismology (NCMS)Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE)

22-24 March 2010

Seek support for a “WMO Expert Meeting on a Scientific Review of the Statement on Weather Modification” and organize a meeting in Geneva scheduled for October 2010. Seek ET-WMR advice and plan a meeting to draft a statement on “lessons learned” on geo-engineering by the WMR community.10th WMO Scientific Conference and Forum on Weather Modification (2012, Indonesia)

Bull. Amer. Met. Soc., October 2010

• Toward a seamless process for the prediction of weather and climate: the advancement of sub-seasonal to seasonal predictionBrunet, G., M. A. Shapiro, B. Hoskins, M. Moncrieff, R. Dole, G. N. Kiladis, B. Kirtman, A. Lorenc, B. Mills, R. Morss, S. Polavarapu, D. Rogers, J. Schaake, and J. Shukla.

• Addressing the complexity of the Earth systemNobre, Carlos, Guy P. Brasseur, Melvyn A. Shapiro, Myanna Lahsen, Gilbert Brunet, Antonio J. Busalacchi, Kathy Hibbard, Kevin Noone and Jean Ometto.

• An Earth-system prediction initiative for the 21st century Shapiro, Melvyn A., Jagadish Shukla, Gilbert Brunet, Carlos Nobre, Michel Béland, Randall Dole, Kevin Trenberth, Richard Anthes, Ghassem Asrar, Leonard Barrie, Philippe Bougeault, Guy Brasseur, David Burridge, Antonio Busalacchi, Jim Caughey, Delaing Chen, John Church, Takeshi Enomoto, Brian Hoskins, Øystein Hov, Arlene Laing , Hervé Le Treut, Jochem Marotzke, Gordon McBean, Gerald Meehl, Martin Miller, Brian Mills, John Mitchell, Mitchell Moncrieff, Tetsuo Nakazawa, Haraldur Olafsson, Tim Palmer, David Parsons, David Rogers, Adrian Simmons, Alberto Troccoli, Zoltan Toth, Louis Uccellini, Christopher Velden and John M. Wallace.

• Toward a new generation of world climate research and computing facilities Shukla, J., T.N. Palmer, R. Hagedorn, J. Kinter, J. Marotzke, M. Miller and J. Slingo