Science blog

DACCIWA blog banner

DACCIWA – a 5-year programme on weather, climate and air pollution in West Africa

Colleagues from the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology join with ECMWF staff to discuss improvements in our understanding of how aerosols, clouds and radiation affect the monsoon rains of southern West Africa.
Evensen blog banner

Using the power of data assimilation to model the COVID-19 pandemic

Given that data assimilation is such a central aspect of ECMWF’s work, Geir Evensen was invited to present a seminar and a blog covering his work on its use in modelling aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cafe Blog Banner

Towards sub-seasonal predictability of extreme weather over Europe

Emmanuel Rouges and Nikolaos Mastrantonas are investigating predictability on the challenging sub-seasonal (or extended-range) timescale, focusing on extreme conditions over Europe, as part of the EU CAFE project.
Science blog banner, Summit

A baseline for global weather and climate simulations at 1 km resolution

Nils Wedi describes the first ever 1 km seasonal timescale simulation of the atmosphere, run on the fastest computer in the world (as of November 2019). Modelling weather in such unprecedented detail is offering exciting opportunities to advance weather and climate prediction, and the testing of new satellite observations.
Science blog banner, snow-covered cars

Towards improved forecasts in Northern Europe with a new snow model

Jonny Day and Gabriele Arduini discuss how they are using Finnish Meteorological Institute observations at a snow-covered boreal site in Lapland to improve the ECMWF snow model and forecasts in Northern Europe.
Blog banner, ECMWF art exhibition

The first ECMWF science and art exhibition

ECMWF’s first science and art exhibition proved a great success. It demonstrated the importance of art as a way of engaging an audience, stimulating dialogue and encouraging the creativity which is at the heart of the Centre's scientific excellence.
Blog banner, NOAA observational campaign

Flying high with NOAA over the Pacific

David Lavers relates his experience on a research aircraft flight to observe atmospheric rivers and the benefits such observations can bring to forecasts of precipitation and flooding.
coupling between clouds and circulation

Clouds in the Caribbean – un carnet de voyage around EUREC4A

After spending a week at the ambitious EUREC4A observing campaign, Irina Sandu shares her excitement about how this major German-French led international effort can change our understanding of the coupling between clouds and circulation, and their representation in weather and climate models.
Super-sites blog banner

Visit to a DWD super-site helps understand sources of near-surface temperature biases

Polly Schmederer looks at how measurements from observational super-sites are helping to better understand errors in forecasts of near-surface temperature.
Meteosat-10 mesoscale convective system, banner

Modelling convective precipitation – progress and challenges

Exciting improvements in modelling convective precipitation are being achieved through the collaboration of visiting scientist Tobias Becker, from the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, with ECMWF’s Irina Sandu and Peter Bechtold.
Receding waters after Idai

Forecasting tropical cyclones and flooding

To mark the UN International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction on 13 October, Linus Magnusson discusses ECMWF forecasts of tropical cyclones and the destructive floods that can result.
Computing banner image

Will machine learning replace conventional weather prediction models?

Following a recent workshop, Peter Dueben discusses recent progress and future possibilities in the application of machine learning to weather and climate prediction.
Blog banner radio frequency interference

Why we need to protect weather prediction from radio frequency interference

Stephen English explains why, in a world hungry for the use of radio frequencies in new applications, the meteorological community needs to be clear about their critical value for weather prediction.
Blog banner moon images

ECMWF over the Moon

As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first Moon landing, Philippe Lopez investigates whether the ECMWF forecasting model can reproduce the detailed cloud patterns captured in those early, iconic images of planet Earth from space.
Blog banner Nils Wedi

The Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility User Workshop 2019

The Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility in the US is home to “Summit”, the world’s fastest computer. After his recent trip there, Nils Wedi discusses some of the latest advances in supercomputing and considers their application to numerical weather prediction.
OpenIFS Rasberry PiPS blog banner

Weather forecasts with OpenIFS on a home-made supercomputer

PhD student Sam Hatfield discusses how he and colleagues built a table-top supercomputer and used it to produce demonstration weather forecasts with OpenIFS. It's a system that is proving fascinating to the public as well as benefiting Sam's research.
DACCIWA blog banner, KITcube atmospheric observation system

The air that West Africa breathes

Angela Benedetti (ECMWF) and Peter Knippertz (KIT) explain how the EU-funded DACCIWA project collected new data in West Africa to investigate the causes and effects of air pollution, examining for the first time the entire chain of natural and human-made emissions.
Example extended-range forecast

A new book on the challenges of extended-range prediction

In this blog, Dr Frédéric Vitart discusses a book on recent progress and challenges in extended-range forecasting, which he has co-edited with Andrew Robertson (IRI).
SciArt blog, Louise Arnal

A journey through science and art

Louise Arnal is a scientist with a lifelong love of art. Here she explores the relationship between art and science and talks about her involvement in a number of SciArt projects.