News

The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), implemented by ECMWF on behalf of the EU, upgraded its seasonal forecast products on 13 November. Forecasts are now available from five models compared to three before, and one of the original models has been upgraded to a new version.

Python experts from across the world came together at ECMWF on 30 and 31 October 2018 to review progress in developing Python frameworks for Earth system sciences. Nineteen speakers gave updates on recent developments.

The Global Flood Awareness System (GloFAS), for which ECMWF is the computational centre, was upgraded on 14 November to provide improved river flood forecasts across the world. The upgrade is the first after GloFAS became an operational service earlier this year.

The process of moving ECMWF’s data centre to Bologna, Italy, entered a new phase with the release of an Invitation to Tender for ECMWF’s next high-performance computing facility on 12 November 2018.

The Metop-C weather satellite was successfully launched from Europe’s space port in Kourou, French Guiana, on 7 November 2018. It will help to ensure the continuous supply of crucial data to help initialise numerical weather prediction models for years to come.

After nearly four years of developing and testing ECMWF’s new Meteorological Interpolation and Regridding (MIR) software package, its main developer, Pedro Maciel, is happy to certify that it is ready for operations.

Recent work has prepared the ground for ECMWF to assimilate satellite observations providing information on the vertical structure of clouds. This will help to determine the initial conditions on which global weather forecasts are based.

The autumn 2018 issue of the ECMWF Newsletter is now available. As well as news about ECMWF staff and events, it features articles about new developments and the use that can be made of ECMWF products.

Every 13 October, the UN-sponsored International Day for Disaster Reduction celebrates how people and communities around the world are reducing their exposure to disasters. From storms, droughts and heatwaves to floods and wildfires, many disasters are weather-related.

ECMWF is pleased to announce that the hourly data and 06/18 UTC forecast runs from its Boundary Conditions Optional Programme are now available to all users holding a real-time licence, upon request.