This year marks fifty years since ECMWF was established - half a century of scientific collaboration and innovation across our Member and Co-operating States. With celebratory events held in Bonn, recently in Bologna and soon to take place in Reading, this anniversary has offered us an opportunity to look back at how far numerical weather prediction and related sciences have come, and to look ahead to how ECMWF will continue to evolve.
The articles in this issue reflect that ongoing journey - one that is deeply rooted in science and continually reaching towards the future.
The spirit of innovation is evident in the operationalisation of the Artificial Intelligence Forecasting System ensemble (AIFS ENS), marking another significant milestone in the integration of machine learning within numerical weather prediction. As previously announced in the Summer Newsletter and described in more detail in this issue, AIFS ENS is trained using a CRPS-based approach, which optimises the probabilistic scores of the ensemble forecasts. It delivers skilful weather forecasts with significantly improved speed and energy efficiency. Alongside it, the upgrade to IFS Cycle 50r1 highlights how we continue to strengthen our traditional forecasting system, ensuring that physics-based and AI-driven approaches advance together.
Our feature article on the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) looks back on a decade of climate monitoring. Over those ten years, C3S has transformed climate monitoring, providing timely, transparent and accessible reporting - covering what have now become the ten warmest calendar years on record globally. From monthly bulletins to interactive applications like Climate Pulse, C3S has become a trusted reference for policymakers, scientists and citizens to understand the accelerating pace of climate change and is a remarkable example of what collaboration can achieve.
Looking to the future, NEXhub represents a significant step in managing numerical experiments within our computing infrastructure or EuroHPC machines available under the DestinE initiative - it is a platform designed to enable faster testing, development and collaboration.
The news stories in this issue demonstrate the breadth of ECMWF's work – from working with partners for expanding observation coverage across the Mediterranean or verifying forecasts over South America to exploring innovative ways of understanding health-related weather impacts. They underline the power of data and partnerships to advance global forecasting and applications that matter to people's lives.
For me, this anniversary year and this Newsletter hold particular significance, as they are my last as Director-General before I retire at the end of 2025. It has been an immense privilege to serve an organisation that embodies international collaboration and scientific excellence, and to work alongside such dedicated colleagues and partners in the European Meteorological Infrastructure. I am deeply proud of what ECMWF has achieved during these transformative years. We have moved to a full ensemble Earth-system approach and assimilated new observations. We have embraced AI and machine learning, implemented cloud services and open data, and worked with the EU and partners to consolidate our Copernicus services and to establish Digital Twins for Destination Earth. In addition to this, we have transitioned to a multi-site organisation and are making progress in inclusion and diversity.
As ECMWF enters its next chapter, I have every confidence that it will continue to thrive under Florian Pappenberger's leadership, who will bring expertise, passion and dedication to his new role. I wish him and all of you every success in the years ahead.
Florence Rabier
Director-General