Terms of use

Introduction

The web sites of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) present numerical weather predictions, news and the latest information on ECMWF activities to a broad spectrum of users interested in medium-range weather forecasting.

The web sites offer users the possibility to learn more about ECMWF's organisation, to research specific areas and programmatic themes, and to access ECMWF products and services. They also serve as channels to link visitors to ECMWF's more specialised scientific and technical sites, which are of interest to various weather and climate-related communities.

Access to ECMWF’s web sites is provided from ECMWF’s headquarters in Reading, UK.

Disclaimer

Use of ECMWF web sites constitutes acceptance of the following general terms and conditions.

  • Any user of any information, text, or electronic images contained within our web sites accepts full responsibility for its use.
  • Neither ECMWF nor any other party involved in creating, producing or delivering the web site shall be liable for any direct, incidental, consequential, indirect or punitive damages arising out of users' access to, or use of, the web site.

Although ECMWF uses the best technical standards to control its site, material on this web site may inadvertently include technical inaccuracies or other errors. ECMWF would be grateful if users would notify us of any errors or inaccuracies they may find.

References to geographical or other territories and groupings are based on terms provided to ECMWF by ECMWF Member States and Co-operating States, terminology used by other relevant international organisations or other sources deemed relevant by ECMWF. The use of such references and terminology on this website as well as in the materials contained therein or linked to, does not constitute or imply an expression of opinion by ECMWF concerning the status of any State or territory, or its frontiers or sovereignty. The colours, boundaries and names shown and the designations used on maps available from or through this website are not intended to imply any judgment, official endorsement, or acceptance by ECMWF as to the legal status or frontier of any territory.

ECMWF does not warrant that the functional aspects of the web sites will be uninterrupted or error free or that the web sites, or the servers that makes them available, are free from viruses or other harmful components.

ECMWF may change material on the site without prior notice.

External web sites

The ECMWF site may contain links and references to external web sites. These are provided for the convenience and interest of users and on the part of ECMWF this implies neither responsibility for, nor approval of, information contained in these web sites.

ECMWF makes no warranty, either express or implied, as to the accuracy, availability or content of information, text, graphics which are not under the 'ecmwf.int' domain.

ECMWF has not tested any software located on other sites and does not make any representation as to the quality, safety, reliability or suitability of such software.

Ownership of content

All copyright, design rights and other intellectual property rights in the content of the ECMWF web sites, including but not limited to the ECMWF logo, text, images, layout, software and artwork, is owned by, controlled by or licensed to ECMWF, unless explicitly stated otherwise.

Use of the ECMWF logo

Owners of external web sites who would like to link to the ECMWF web sites may use the ECMWF logo for the link but for no other purposes.

Access to and use of public content

Some but not all of the content and page areas on the ECMWF web sites are accessible to the public.

Of the publicly accessible content, some items are subject to their own terms of use. Such items either carry an indication of who controls the rights in the item and, in some cases, a link to a click use licence, or restrictions concerning their use are listed in image credits. The user may not copy or download such an item from the ECMWF web sites without first obtaining a licence from the rights controller.

Otherwise, all the publicly accessible content on the ECMWF web sites (i.e. content available without needing to log in that also does not carry its own rights notice adjacent to the item or listed in image credits) is available for use under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License:

Access to and use of protected content

Some content and page areas on the ECMWF web sites are protected by access control and require an ECMWF user-id in order to view. ECMWF user-ids are not available to members of the public. They are available to representatives of the national meteorological and hydrological services in ECMWF’s Member States and Cooperating States. They are also available to representatives of other organisations, which have agreed special licences for use of ECMWF’s products and services.

That content, which is only accessible via an ECMWF user-id, must be used in accordance with the relevant terms, previously agreed between ECMWF and the organisation, for which the user is a representative.

Limiting access to our web sites

The nature of some of the data and services provided via ECMWF's web sites means that in certain circumstances it is possible for individual users to affect the functionality, availability or response of the web site for other users. ECMWF will attempt to resolve such issues without adversely affecting use but in such cases where it is not possible to resolve the issues, ECMWF will have the option to regulate, limit or ban access to part of, or all of, our web sites, based on incoming IP address, user-id or any other access characteristic ECMWF feels is necessary to solve the problem. When ECMWF has taken such action, reasonable attempts will be made to communicate the issue to the user in order that full service may be restored.

Forums and discussions

The ECMWF web site may contain bulletin boards, chat rooms, access to mailing lists and other message and communication facilities (collectively termed 'forums'). Users agree to use forums solely to send and receive messages and materials that are strictly related to the particular forum.

When using an ECMWF forum, users agree not to do any of the following:

  • Users may not download, distribute or otherwise publish through the ECMWF web site any content which is libellous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, abusive or which, in any way, violates any laws;
  • Forums are for non-commercial use only. Users may not distribute or otherwise publish any material containing any solicitation for funding, advertising or solicitation for goods or services without requesting and receiving prior written approval from ECMWF;
  • Users shall not delete any author attributions, legal notices, proprietary designations or labels from any file that is downloaded nor falsify the origin or source of software or other material contained in a file that is downloaded.

ECMWF does not and cannot review every message posted by users on forums and is not responsible for the content of any messages posted. ECMWF reserves the right to delete, move or edit, at its sole discretion, messages that it deems abusive, defamatory, obscene, in violation of copyright laws or otherwise unacceptable. Users shall remain solely responsible for the content of their messages.

Users acknowledge that any submissions may be edited, removed, modified, published, transmitted and displayed by ECMWF.

Users should be aware that all forums and discussion groups are potentially public and should not be considered to be private communications. Furthermore, users acknowledge that chats, postings, conferences and any other form of communication by other users are not endorsed by ECMWF, and that such communications shall not be considered as having been reviewed, screened or approved by ECMWF.