Francesca Di Giuseppe

Principal Scientist/Project Manager
Forecast Department, Evaluation Section, Diagnostics

Summary:

Francesca leads the development of the Fire Forecasting system at ECMWF. The system  provides operational predictions to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) under the umbrella of the European Copernicus Emergency Management Services. EFFIS is also being expanded into the Global Wildfire Information System to create an integrated system that provides access to all fire related available information on a global scale. Since joining ECMWF in 2011, Francesca has worked extensively on seasonal and sub-seasonal forecasting for sectoral application related to drought, fire and health, with a focus over Europe and Africa.

Professional interests:
  • Fire forecast modelling
  • Drought modelling
  • Early warning systems development
  • Forecasting of natural hazards driven by Numerical Weather Prediction models
  • Uncertainty/Sensitivity analysis and cascading of uncertainty/sensitivity 
  • Statistical post- and pre-processing of hydro-meteorological variables 
Career background:
  • 2011–present: Fire Forecast project coordinator, Principal Scientist, ECMWF, UK
  • 2003–2010: Team leader at the Regional  met service in Bologna (ARPAE-SIMC), IT
  • 2000–2003: PhD Meteorology  Department University of Reading, UK
  • 1998–2002: Postdoctoral research scientist, Physics Department University of Bologna, IT
External recognitions
  • Convener at the  EGU General Assembly
  • Advisor for  WMO program on "Vegetation Fire and Smoke Pollution Warning and Advisory System (VFSP-WAS)"
  • Nominated expert for REPRISE-Register of Expert Peer-Reviewers for Italian Scientific Evaluation
  • Appointed project examiner for the “Prin 2012” research program of the Italian ministry of University (MIUR)
  • Reviewer for many international journals
  • 2022
  • 2021
  • 2020
  • 2019
  • 2018
  • 2017
  • 2016
    • (March 2016) The potential predictability of fire danger provided by numerical weather prediction, Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology.
    • (March 2016) Atmospheric composition changes due to the extreme 2015 Indonesian fire season triggered by El Niño [in “State of the Climate in 2015”], Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc.
    • Francesca Di Giuseppe, Florian Pappenberger, Fredrik Wetterhall, Blazej Krzeminski, San-Miguel-Ayanz J., Camia A., Libertà G. (March 2016) NWP-driven fire danger forecasting for Copernicus, ECMWF Newsletter, issue 147, pp. 34-39. DOI: 10.21957/ett9cmqc
  • 2015
    • (March 2015) Generalizing cloud overlap treatment to include the effect of wind shear, Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences.
    • (March 2015) Demonstration of successful malaria forecasts for Botswana using an operational seasonal climate model, Environmental Research Letters.
    • (March 2015) An interpretation of cloud overlap statistics, Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences.
    • (March 2015) Global forecasting of thermal health hazards: the skill of probabilistic predictions of the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI), International journal of biometeorology.
    • (March 2015) Potential predictability of malaria in Africa using ECMWF monthly and seasonal climate forecasts, Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology.
    • Francesca Di Giuseppe, A.M. Tompkins (July 2015) A parameterization of cloud overlap as a function of wind shear and its impact in ECMWF forecast, ECMWF Technical Memorandum n. 750. DOI: 10.21957/bbj59jvz
  • 2014
  • 2013
    • (March 2013) Relating mean radiosounding profiles to surface fluxes for the very stable boundary layer, Boundary-layer meteorology.
    • (March 2013) Real-time correction of ERA-Interim monthly rainfall, Geophysical Research Letters.
    • (March 2013) A rainfall calibration methodology for impacts modelling based on spatial mapping, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society.
    • (March 2013) Seamless forecasting of extreme events on a global scale, Climate and Land Surface Changes in Hydrology, edited by: Boegh, E., Blyth, E., Hannah, DM, Hisdal, H., Kunstmann, H., Su, B., and Yilmaz, KK, IAHS Publication, Gothenburg, Sweden.
    • (March 2013) Seasonal forecasts of droughts in African basins using the Standardized Precipitation Index, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences. DOI: 10.5194/hess-17-2359-2013
  • 2012
    • (March 2012) Automatic detection of atmospheric boundary layer height using ceilometer backscatter data assisted by a boundary layer model, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society.
    • (March 2012) Inferring soil moisture variability in the Mediterrean Sea area using infrared and passive microwave observations, Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing.
  • 2011
    • (March 2011) The relevance of background-error covariance matrix localization: an application to the variational retrieval of vertical profiles from SEVIRI observations, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society.
    • (March 2011) Soil initialization strategy for use in limited-area weather prediction systems, Monthly Weather Review.
  • 2009
    • (March 2009) Cloud radiative interactions and their uncertainty in climate models, Stochastic Physics and Climate Models.
    • (March 2009) Leaf area index specification for use in mesoscale weather prediction systems, Monthly Weather Review.
    • (March 2009) The potential of variational retrieval of temperature and humidity profiles from Meteosat Second Generation observations, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society.
  • 2007
    • (March 2007) Reproducing cloud microphysical and irradiance measurements using three 3D cloud generators, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society.
    • (March 2007) Generalizing cloud overlap treatment to include solar zenith angle effects on cloud geometry, Journal of the atmospheric sciences.
  • 2005
    • (March 2005) Sensitivity of one-dimensional radiative biases to vertical cloud-structure assumptions: Validation with aircraft data, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society.
    • (March 2005) Impact of cloud cover on solar radiative biases in deep convective regimes, Journal of the atmospheric sciences.
  • 2003
    • (March 2003) Three-dimensional radiative transfer in tropical deep convective clouds, Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.
    • (March 2003) Solar radiative biases in deep convective regimes: Possible implications for dynamical feedback, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society.
    • (March 2003) Effect of spatial organization on solar radiative transfer in three-dimensional idealized stratocumulus cloud fields, Journal of the atmospheric sciences.
  • 1999
    • (March 1999) Far infrared scattering effects in cloudy sky, Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Part B: Hydrology, Oceans and Atmosphere.
    • (March 1999) Far infrared scattering effects in cloudy sky, Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Part B: Hydrology, Oceans and Atmosphere.
    • (March 1999) Cirrus cloud optical properties in far infrared, Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Part B: Hydrology, Oceans and Atmosphere.