News

ECMWF is to continue as the computational centre for the hydrological forecasting activities of the EU-funded Copernicus Emergency Management Service for a further six years. The computational centre helps to deliver the European and Global Flood Awareness Systems, EFAS and GloFAS.

ECMWF has signed an agreement with the European Commission to continue implementing the EU-funded Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) and Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) for the next seven years.

ECMWF has opened a forum for its users to post comments on topics related to weather and forecasting, join conversations and provide feedback to the Centre.

ECMWF needs up-to-date satellite observations of weather-related variables to initialise its forecasts and to conduct research. Its partnership with EUMETSAT is essential in this regard.

The Report reviews improvements in forecast performance, advances in research, the Centre’s contributions to Europe’s Copernicus Earth observation programme, preparations for the new data centre in Italy, and how we have worked through the COVID-19 pandemic.

ECMWF researchers have used detailed soil and weather observations up to about 200 metres above ground from several observational super-sites in Europe to assess and improve different aspects of our weather forecasts.

The second fully virtual Using ECMWF’s Forecasts event was held from 1 to 4 June 2021. The meeting attracted people from all over the world to discuss and provide feedback on ECMWF products and services.

ECMWF is to ingest data from Saildrone uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs) later this year to improve our understanding of the behaviour of the Gulf Stream and its influence on weather. Up to six solar-powered USVs will cover a part of the Gulf Stream that is crucial for forecasts.

Some 170 scientists from around the world presented recent progress and challenges ahead in ocean data assimilation in a virtual event from 17 to 20 May 2021, organised jointly by ECMWF and OceanPredict.

ECMWF scientists made a big contribution to the European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2021, held online from 19 to 30 April. Their presentations touched on many aspects of weather prediction as well as work done by the two EU Copernicus services run by ECMWF.