Cross-Border Convection Forecast (CBCF)

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7 May 2024 Alexandra Albus-Moore

The 7th season of Cross-Border Convection Forecast started successfully on 1 May with the participation of 23 European MET ANSPs and the coordination of EUMETNET

The Cross Border Convective Forecast (CBCF) is a collaborative forecast that provides Network Manager (NM) at EUROCONTROL, and participating ANSPs, with information about convective weather across European Airspace.

NM uses this information to coordinate with impacted Air Traffic Control Centres (ACCs) across Europe and implement mitigation measures to minimise flight delays and improve aircraft safety. Possible measures include calling in stand-by controllers, postponing military exercises or relaxing routing restrictions.

Just in time for this collaborative convection forecast, the weather proved to be interesting, so that the coordination across borders for the sake of a consistent forecast led to a colorful chart.

BULATSA participation in eGAFOR

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Alexandra Albus-Moore

EUMETNET is pleased to announce that on 1 May, BULATSA started the operational service provision of eGAFOR for the area of Bulgaria.

With the coordination of EUMETNET, BULATSA has joint as the 8^th Aeronautical Meteorology Air Navigation Service Providers (MET ANSPs) participating in the eGAFOR Module alongside ARSO (Slovenia), BHANSA (Bosnia and Herzegovina), CCL (Croatia), HungaroMet (Hungary), ROMATSA (Romania), SHMI (Slovakia), SMATSA (Serbia and Montenegro). The Participants regularly produce a uniform, harmonized, probabilistic, graphical, colour-coded, low-level Forecast (LLF) for VFR Flights up to FL 100, with an assessment of the impact of weather on flight routes.

The main user of the eGAFOR forecast is General Aviation and the forecast is freely available for users via this dedicated webpage: eGAFOR Viewer

Signature of the MoU between EUMETNET & WMO

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26 March 2024 Alexandra Albus-Moore

The WMO SG, Celeste Saulo, and the EUMETNET Executive Director, Klemen Bergant, have signed the MoU between EUMETNET and WMO.

The aim of this MoU is to enhance collaboration in matters of mutual interest, such as meterological observation systems and data infrastructure, weather and climate services, the promotion and implementation of early warning systems, reserach and development, education and training, etc.

WMO activities such as the WMO Information System (WIS), the WMO Integrated Global Observation System (WIGOS) and joint initiatives such as the WMO-IATA Collaborative AMDAR Programme (WICAP), the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS) and several others provide a general framework for cooperation.

The signature of this agreement means that the excellent cooperation between WMO and EUMETNET will continue and be enhanced over the next five years.

The NMSs of Lithuania and Romania become full Members of EUMETNET

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19 December 2023 Alexandra Albus-Moore

Two new National Met Services will join EUMETNET as full Members from 1st January 2024. The NMSs of Lithuania and Romania, both Cooperating Members of EUMETNET for several years, officially requested full membership from 1st January. These two new Members will bring the number of full Members of EUMETNET to 33.

The delegation from NMAR (NMS of Romania) was present at the 31st Assembly meeting in Reading and signed the amendment Agreement with the Assembly Chair, Roar Skalin and the Executive Director, Klemen Bergant.

Signature of amended EUMETNET Agreement

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Alexandra Albus-Moore

The 31 Members of EUMETNET signed the amendment to the EUMETNET Agreement that will come into force on 1st January 2024. EUMETNET, which was previously an economic interest grouping (GIE – Groupement d’Intérêt Economique), will become a general partnership (SNC – Société en Nom Collectif).

The amendment to the Agreement was signed at the Assembly meeting that took place at ECMWF Headquarters in Reading, UK.

This Agreement provides the basis for cooperation between the European NMSs for the next 10 years.

The Chair of the Assembly, Roar Skalin and Klemen Bergant, the Executive Director, sign the Agreement.

Approval of new 5-year Programme phase

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Alexandra Albus-Moore

At its 31st Assembly meeting in Reading, EUMETNET Assembly Members approved the new five-year Programme phase that will last until 2028, extending all the current Programmes and their Modules.

In addition two new Programmes and Modules were approved, the new Programme on Artificial Intelligence for Weather, Climate and Environmental Applications, as well as a new activity within the Aviation Support Programme producing Cross-Boder Convention Forecasts for EUROCONTROL Network Manager and other users.

New Chair and Vice-Chair of EUMETNET Assembly

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17 July 2023 Alexandra Albus-Moore

EUMETNET’s Spring Assembly meeting, held in Reykjavik, was chaired for the first time by Dr Roar Skålin, Director of the Norwegian Meteorological Service, MET Norway, who has been elected as the new Chair of EUMETNET’s Assembly of Members.

Dr Skålin replaces Dr Peter Binder from MeteoSwiss, who stepped down as Chair following his retirement.

Dr Martin Benko from the Slovakian Meterological Service, SHMU, was elected as Vice-Chair.

Both Dr Skålin and Dr Benko will serve initial two-year terms.

One Health: Need for an EU One Health-in-all-policies approach: Addressing the Asthma and Allergy pandemic

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Alexandra Albus-Moore

On last Tuesday 4 July, a round table was held in European Parliament in Brussels entitled “One Health: Need for an EU One Health-in-all-policies approach: Addressing the Asthma and Allergy pandemic “.
This event, organised under the lead of Ingrida Šaulienė and hosted by the MEP Juozas Olekas, was a great opportunity to promote the inclusion of information on pollen concentrations in European regulations.
To watch or re-watch this exciting event, you can download the recording via the link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LOQHEyio6Ku3CLM46QZAomDEcXFnbyVX/view?usp=drive_link

Also, some photos of the event are available via: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1LTTCjfivK_xdDpf8TiCiFqQMR9smDm5q?usp=drive_link

The event culminated in a Joint Statement which you can find below

Joint Statement – AutoPollen

RODEO Project Launch

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27 June 2023 Alexandra Albus-Moore

RODEO Project Launch – making meteorological high-value datasets available for all

The Provision of Open Access to Public Meteorological Data and Development of Shared Federated Data Infrastructure for the Development of Information Products and Services (RODEO) Project has now been officially launched.

In 2019, the European Commission issued a revised directive on open data (1024/2019/EU) which aims to harmonize and enhance regulation related to the opening of public sector data reserves. The Implementing Regulation of the Directive defines High Value Datasets (HVD), (EU) 2023/138, and the technical requirements for each of the data categories. One of which concerns meteorological data.

The RODEO project responds to the requirements of the HVD Implementing Regulation by making meteorological High Value Datasets easily available and bringing new data to businesses, public administrations and citizens.

The regulation defines requirements for surface weather observations, climate time series, warnings, weather radar data, and Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) data. Furthermore, the regulation specifies they shall be available under an open license, in a machine-readable format using Application Programming Interfaces (API) and bulk downloadable. These datasets will be free of charge.

The project is co-funded by the Digital Europe Programme (DIGITAL) and by the network of 31 European National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (EUMETNET). The project partners consist of 11 European meteorological institutions (listed below), the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and EUMETNET..

The project strengthens the capacity of the European meteorological data providers to comply with the HVD Implementing Regulation by:

Developing a user interface
Developing APIs for accessing weather observation data, climate data, weather radar data, warnings, and AI datasets
Developing a data catalogue for making data discoverable
Engaging with the data owners and user communities
Supporting the deployment of national data portals and APIs
Making HVDs available from the project partners

During the three-year RODEO project, the project partners will design and implement harmonised technical solutions supporting the European meteorological institutions to meet the HVD requirements. This will increase the usability of public sector meteorological data and boost entrepreneurship, improve and develop digital products and services and support climate research.

Most importantly, better data availability leads to better weather warnings, forecasts, and services to the public and weather-critical industries, and contributes to the safe and efficient functioning of society with multiple benefits across the European economy, industry, and society.

The Project Partners are:

Ilmatieteen laitos, Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI)

Danmarks Meteorologiske Institut, Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI)

European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF)

Orszagos Meteorologiai Szolgalat, Hungarian Meteorological Service (OMSZ)

Bundesanstalt für Geologie, Geophysik, Klimatologie und Meteorologie, GeoSphere Austria

Koninklijk Nederlands Meteorologisch Institutt, Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI)

Latvijas Vides, Geologijas un Meteorologijas Centrs Sia, Latvian Environment, Geology and Meteorology Centre (LVGMC)

EUMETNET Groupement D’Interet Economique, EUMETNET

Meteorologisk Institutt, Norwegian Meteorological Institute (Met Norway)

Administratia Nationala De Meteorologie R.A., National Administration of Meteorology of Romania (ANM)

Vedurstofa Islands, Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO)

Instytut Meteorologii i Gospodarki Wodnej – Państwowy Instytut Badawczy, Institute of Meteorology and Water Management – National Research Institute of Poland (IMGW-PIB)

Institut Royal Meteorologique de Belgique, NSTITUT ROYAL METEOROLOGIQUE DE Belgique, Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium (IRM)

Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Machine Learning in Weather & Climate

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14 November 2022 Alexandra Albus-Moore

Launch of a new Massive Open Online Course on Machine Learning in Weather and Climate

Registrations are now open for a new Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Machine Learning in Weather and Climate! The MOOC will be launched in January 2023 by European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) in partnership with the International Foundation on Big Data and Artificial Intelligence for Human Development (IFAB).

The objective is to train a wider community on the impact and use of machine learning in numerical weather and climate predictions. It will bring together experts throughout Member and Co-operating States and beyond to provide a shared vision across the communities of Earth system sciences, high-performance computing and machine learning.

What is the MOOC and who is it for?

It is a fully online free training course, accessible to a global audience. In order to maximise inclusivity, the MOOC is distributed in time with a three-tiered approach. Learners may choose to follow one or more tiers. Within each tier, the programme is modular. Participants may select one or more modules within a particular topic subset, according to their interests.

The first tier is an introduction to machine learning in weather and climate. It is aimed at anyone interested in the topic, be they academics, from operational services, policy makers or the general public. Only a basic knowledge of weather and climate science, statistics and computing is assumed of learners.

Tier two takes a deeper look at the concepts of machine learning, and tier three demonstrates practical machine learning applications in weather and climate. These two tiers are more hands-on and include coding assignments, in which learners have the opportunity to apply machine learning to real-world problems. Tiers two and three are therefore more suited to technical data users from academia or industry across different sectors.

To allow for self-paced learning, the MOOC runs over ten weeks, with around three to four hours of study per week, for a total of 36 hours of training. The end of the MOOC coincides with the application phase of ECMWF’s Summer of Weather Code (ESoWC), in which learners will be encouraged to submit proposals for coding projects with ECMWF mentoring and the chance to win a cash stipend.

About the training

The MOOC mixes interactive e‑learning with webinars. Learning will be consolidated through a wide variety of activities, from videos and commuter friendly podcasts to discussion forums and e‑learning modules. Guided by a host of domain specialists from around the world, learners will be able to

explore the subject from different angles. The webinars, for instance, are perfect occasions to interact with leading experts from the field. The acquired knowledge will then be honed in practical exercises. Using interactive Jupyter notebooks, learners will have the possibility of gaining hands-on practical experience with machine learning algorithms.

Throughout their whole learning journey, participants will be accompanied by a dedicated science communicator, who will break down the technical content into plain language whenever needed. Each completed tier will be rewarded with a certificate of completion. Those who

complete all three tiers shall receive particular recognition with a more comprehensive certificate. At the end of the live run, the material will continue to be freely accessible from the ECMWF website.