Conference Program

Upper-air observations in the boundary layer are still rarely used in operational networks in spite of their ability to improve weather forecasts. As remote sensing techniques are now available as operational met equipment, multiple networks have been established with lidar sensors installed, such as the New York State Mesonet network. In this network, 17 WINDCUBE100S lidar systems have been operating for two years. This study will present the chosen configuration and scanning scenarios of the lidars in order to provide products including wind, boundary layer detection and clouds/aerosols layers, at the expected update and accuracy rate.

EUMETSAT is about to bring monitoring of the weather and climate from space into a new era with the launch of its next-generation geostationary and polar-orbiting satellites, from 2021 and 2022 respectively. These next-generation programs will be the most complex and innovative meteorological satellite constellations in existence, carrying a payload of next-generation instruments, some of which will be making their world premiere on operational satellites. This means that more and better weather and climate data can be provided to national meteorological services to be used to protect lives, property and economies.

The WMO’s Flash Flood Guidance System (FFGS) with global coverage is a project designed to give trained operational forecasters from national meteorological and hydrological services access to a variety of real-time products to assess the potential threat of occurrence of flash flooding, so that warnings may be issued in a timely manner. The system gives forecasters access to several products, such as mean areal precipitation, soil moisture estimates, flash flood guidance, forecast flash flood threat, forecast mean areal precipitation, snow cover and melt, etc. The FFGS now covers 64 countries with around three billion people.

The developments of the SESAR deployment project EMADDC are presented. ATC surveillance technology such as ADS-B and Mode-S offer great potential to either obtain or derive wind direction, wind speed and temperature observations in numbers unprecedented in Europe. As of 2019, EMADDC v1.0 is operational, processing surveillance data of Eurocontrol MUAC every 15 minutes. The output is made available and used for various purposes. The presentation will focus on the latest developments and use cases of the EMADDC deliverables. Included are a promising new method for individual aircraft correction, geographical expansion and opportunities to move from batch toward near real-time processing.

Despite the fact that ocean monitoring has been significantly improved during the last two decades with new platforms, sensors and telemetry systems, there are still many unsolved gaps regarding coverage, data quality and sustainability becoming relevant in regions like Macaronesia, which is made up of archipelagos that are situated far away from each other. A multidisciplinary group of companies and institutions is aiming to consolidate a regional initiative under the name of R3M (Macaronesian Marine Monitoring Network), as a reference framework to gather, manage and display the information provided by all existing in situ observing platforms (fixed and mobile) in the area, according to the needs of specific end users and the general public.

The TWIGA project is funded under the EU H2020 program and connects 10 European and eight African partners. The main goal of TWIGA is to develop new geoservices for Africa, based on innovative in situ observations of water, weather and climate. A wide range of new services has been proposed, from relatively simple spray advice to complex services surrounding seed germination insurance. The types of sensors vary from simple existing sensors being ‘hacked’ for new applications, to microscintillometers for field-scale sensible heat flux measurements. The aim is to strengthen the in situ component of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS).

A national meteorology and hydrology service (NMHS) should have the capacity to deliver cost-effective and user-driven services and products that are sustainable and can be operated and maintained in the long term, and not disrupted by external shocks such as weather events, blackouts, and so on. NMHS’s objectives are, in general, to mitigate the effects of natural disasters; promote safety, comfort, efficiency and regularity of air, land, sea and inland water transportation; facilitate sustainable development of natural resources; and ensure data is available to stakeholders for the robust and well-engineered design of diverse water-related infrastructure. These so-called ‘strategic objectives’ are nice on paper, but what is there behind them? Based on experience in promoting modernized management tools in LDCs from Africa and Southeast Asia, this presentation will highlight key challenges in delivering hydromet services, and explore opportunities for developers.

Pollen allergy is among the most prevalent non-contagious diseases, with about a quarter of the European population sensitive to various atmospheric bioaerosols. Today’s available pollen data is always delayed by several days. Real-time data is needed for better pollen information, forecast and prevention. The optimized first series of Swisens Poleno addresses this need. It is an automatic real-time measurement and identification device for different pollen species and other bioaerosols such as spores. The device is optimized for long-term monitoring. Performance of Swisens Poleno in the field and the capabilities of measuring additional aerosol particle classes will be shown.

Recent developments in small satellites and modeling techniques have enabled a new class of cost-effective, Earth remote-sensing capability applicable to hydrology and meteorology. Using GNSS-based reflectometry performed by a small-sat constellation enables remote sensing of wave, wind, ice, soil moisture and wetland data with unprecedented temporal resolution and spatial coverage across the full dynamic range of atmospheric conditions. This paper provides a summary of applications enabled by GNSS reflectometry, technical insight into instrument accommodation requirements, unique challenges of applying this sensing technique to its wide array of applications, and associated solutions being developed.

Conventional sensors miss the lightest precipitation events or fail in identification too often. Traditional forward scatterers suffer from limited sensitivity, and disdrometers suffer from limited precipitation identification. This introduces safety risk in weather-critical operations. By utilizing light sheets, a high sampling rate and powerful processors, we take detection and identification performance to the next level. The new sensor detects 100% of precipitation. Particle-by-particle analysis enables superior precipitation type assessment. Significant identification enhancement of drizzle, freezing rain, hail and ice pellets improves safety and efficiency. It is big leap toward AUTO-METAR. All-in-one visibility; precipitation identification, intensity, and accumulation; and disdrometer features provide significant cost-saving potential.

This presentation will look at a new technology to provide added-value hydrographic mapping in Arctic polar regions, via connected bathymetry mobile stations. Based on an interface between data collection sensors and transmission to onshore facilities, it will rely on mega-constellation satellites, which allow the transfer of large amounts of data. User terminals could be placed on portable bathymetry buoys, on survey ships or airplanes; otherwise, unmanned user terminals combined with GPS receivers could be installed on major ice floes. Arctic bathymetry devices will be tailored to specific needs, such as those of governmental organizations, emergency services, sea transportation companies and cruise lines, and local users.

With petabytes of data now available to modern weather forecasters, much more accurate models can be created for full Earth systems. However, numerical weather prediction (NWP) cannot exist without high-performance computing (HPC), and there are many hurdles to developing a reliable and operational NWP system. Historically, the high capital cost of owning and the challenges of operating and managing HPC assets have put them beyond the reach of many forecasting organizations, both private and public. Today, however, new solutions are available that can help address deep technical issues, from data integration to post-processing, as well as organizational constraints.

During the conference in Amsterdam in 2018, the European Space Agency’s presentation gave an overview of current and new satellite-IoT (sat-IoT) connectivity providers. Emphasis then was on the launch of a number of LEO-based systems at the end of 2018. In 2019, however, these systems will be operational, and this presentation will provide an overview of the running services these systems provide alongside existing sat-IoT operators. The presentation will consist of an overview of the satellite-IoT operators, a focus on the new space LEO sat-IoT players, and a meteo use case via LEO sat-IoT.

Visibility measurement based on camera images has already been established, with high performance during daytime proved by ongoing evaluations in ATM scenarios and synoptic meteorological applications. The present proposal addresses night-time scenarios, which pose challenges for a camera-based measurement system, such as light sensitivity of the sensor or availability of representative landmarks. The VisIvis system automatically detects the most suitable areas for visibility estimation within the camera-covered range, automatically tunes its detection parameters, and derives representative visibility measures to report in customized or standard formats (e.g. METAR). Performance during the night will be presented, together with examples from different scenarios.

By implementing and maintaining a stable and metrologically well-characterized global climate reference network, future generations will have access to a set of long-term observations of essential climate variables that will enable them to make more rigorous assessments of climate change and variability, and provide the strong evidence basis that is essential to inform adaptation decisions, and to monitor and quantify the effectiveness of internationally agreed mitigation steps. The Global Climate Observing System’s (GCOS) Atmospheric Observations Panel on Climate agreed on the creation of a dedicated task team to scope a potential GCOS global surface reference network (TT-GSRN). The GSRN will provide the reference element of a tiered network that includes other existing surface observing networks in the WMO system, and it will follow WMO Observing Network Design Principles. The adoption of common terminology and measurement procedures will benefit the ongoing discussions within GCOS and within CIMO for the improvement and revision of best-practice guidelines.

WMO implemented a recognition mechanism for centennial observing stations to mark the outstanding importance of stable, long-term observations for meteorological applications and research. More than 150 observing stations worldwide have been certified so far and many more are expected in the future. Station recognition is used by WMO member states to celebrate publicly the importance of long-term observations, thereby encouraging decision and policy makers to further protect these sites. Meteorological instruments and their evolution from historic past to the future play a key role in long-term observations. This presentation will highlight, from a climatologist’s point of view, instrument-related recognition criteria in particular, thereby encouraging proper instrumentation standards to underpin long-term observations.

Unidata, a cyber-infrastructure facility, has been deploying data infrastructure and data-proximate scientific workflows and analysis tools using cloud computing technologies for accessing, analyzing and visualizing geoscience data. Specifically, Unidata has developed techniques that combine access to well-documented data sets with easy-to-use tools, using workflow technologies. In addition to fostering the adoption of virtual machines through Docker containers and Jupyter notebooks, computational and analytic methods are enabled via Software as a Service and Data as a Service techniques with the deployment of the cloud IDV, AWIPS servers, and the THREDDS data server in the cloud to enable open and reproducible science.

Leading edge erosion (LEE) is a phenomenon that is detrimental to the aerodynamic performance and structural integrity of wind turbine blades. In fact, the increase in surface roughness due to the erosion of the leading edge of blades has a significant detrimental effect on the performance of wind turbines. Recent studies show that reduction in the annual energy production (AEP) resulting from eroded blades can vary from 5% to 25% depending on the severity of the damage. This presentation will focus on local precipitation conditions with respect to degradation due to the leading edge erosion of the wind turbine blades.

Small, unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are very appropriate instruments for atmospheric measurements. They are very flexible during operation, very mobile, and can be operated in remote areas. UAS are very suitable measurement systems with regard to atmospheric turbulence and the turbulent transportation of energy, momentum, gases and particles. This presentation will discuss the pros and cons of small UAS. Due to the requirements of turbulent wind measurements, the presentation will focus on fixed-wing aircraft, and will discuss an exemplary research UAS with an emphasis on turbulent wind vector measurement. Finally, results obtained in boundary-layer meteorology and wind-energy research will be shown.

Being the only real real-time weather information, lightning became essential to NMSs for nowcasting, especially with the ‘lightning jump’ characterization of severe thunderstorms. But almost all sectors are lightning risk dependent, both for human safety and for the safety of properties. By sharing the cost between economic actors, data services efficiently mitigate the lightning risk, creating a win-win situation. As lightning detection networks use remote sensing equipment, their field validation requires specific attention. Depending on their requirements for critical operations, each end user will establish their own SLA based on criteria such as IC/CG classification, availability, timeliness or location accuracy.

Hydromet observations drive the production of credible environmental data essential to the making of many decisions. There have been numerous efforts to enhance hydromet services across Sub-Saharan Africa. Many of these efforts failed to learn from prior experiences. This presentation is part of an effort to disseminate the experiences, good and bad, encountered in the United Nations Development Program on Climate Information for Resilient Development in Africa. This program’s goal was to enable 11 least-developed countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to increase their capacity to produce reliable hydromet decision-support information.

MeteoTracker is a project aimed at building a network of connected mobile weather sensors, exploiting cars as traveling weather stations. The key elements are: a compact, light, portable multisensor device endowed with a patent-pending system for radiation error correction for accurate temperature measurement; a mobile app; a software infrastructure for real-time data upload to the cloud; and a web app for data analysis, visualization and processing. The project is funded by the European PO FESR 2014-2020 program and is currently at an advanced working prototype level.

The WMO’s Integrated Global Observing System (WIGOS) is set to become operational from 2020. It is a framework for integrating all data from observing systems, addressing the observing needs of the weather, climate, water and environmental services of WMO members. The main WIGOS technical systems, namely the Observing Systems Capability Analysis and Review (OSCAR) tool and the WIGOS Data Quality Monitoring System (WDQMS) have been developed and will continue to progress. The OSCAR/Surface database is the global repository of WIGOS metadata for all surface-based observations; it is where all the observing stations are registered using the WIGOS Station Identifiers (WSI). Previously, all observing stations were registered using five-digit WMO identifiers. However, many countries have now run out of numbers within their allowable ranges. The new WIGOS Station IDs (WSIs) were created with a structure of four blocks, using digits and alphanumeric characters that will allow essentially an unlimited number of stations to be registered in WIGOS. The implementation of WSIs is mandatory for members and a critical step they have to take to become WIGOS operational. This presentation will address how members need to carefully plan and implement the transition process from the traditional five-digit WMO IDs to the new IDs.

As quality management frameworks continue to become an integral component of the operation of NMHSs, the maintenance and calibration of hydrometeorological recording equipment and sensors will continue to be a key area of focus at CIMH and its affiliated member organizations. In this regard, CIMH continues to play a valuable role regionally by supporting the sustainable expansion of national and regional observational early-warning networks and ensuring the observation equipment is well managed, maintained and calibrated. Technical utilization of training, calibration and awareness programs can significantly aid in the mitigation of hydromet impacts.

This presentation will look at the Aviation Nowcasting System (ANS) at Pulkovo Airport, which is a pilot project that is being undertaken as part of the WMO’s Aviation Research Demonstration Project, and the SIGMET coordination project. The ANS project is focused on aviation weather nowcasting, which includes respective uncertainty/confidence estimation over the Terminal Control Area for the next 0-6 hours. The system at Pulkovo generates four-hour forecasts to assist meteorologists when issuing forecasts. The near-future plan is to implement this system into ATC for decision making support. SIGMET messages contain information on different weather conditions that may affect flight safety. In accordance with ICAO requirements, states with common borders have to agree on the proposed content, horizontal location, vertical depth, boundaries and speed of movement of any SIGMETs affecting, or expected to affect, each state's FIR regions of responsibility. Since 2016, the Russian Federation has actively taken part in the given process at international level. The coordination process provides an opportunity for the each state to exchange the best practices of SIGMET content.