The Observing System Research and Predictability Experiment (THORPEX)

NEWS

• ICSC-8 final report

• WWRP featured in four articles the January 2010 Bulletin of the American Meteorology Society (BAMS): Two of the BAMS articles deal with nowcasting. One article is entitled “Nowcasting Convective Storms for the Beijing Olympics: Future Implications”, which describes the successes and implications drawn from this WWRP Forecast Demonstration Project. The second article on nowcasting is “Weather Services, Science Advances, and the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games”. This Vancouver 2010 effort includes the WWRP/Nowcasting Research Working Group Project called SNOW V-10, which is designed to advance the science of winter nowcasting in complex terrain.  The other two articles focus on polar research with the cover article of this issue describing the “Storm Studies in the Arctic (STARS)” Project including collaborations with the THORPEX cluster of experiments during the International Polar Year (IPY-THORPEX). The 2nd polar article is entitled “The CONCORDIASI Project in Antarctica”, which is IPY-THORPEX’s contribution to Antarctic IPY research.

• THORPEX Ensemble Prediction Research: The TIGGE (THORPEX Interactive Grand Global Ensemble) is a research archive consisting of data from all the ensemble members form ten global ensemble forecast systems. TIGGE has become a focal point for ensemble research as evidenced by the over 500 registered users of TIGGE data. We encourage researchers using TIGGE to inform THORPEX of their research progress, particularly when papers are published. Further information on the TIGGE archive can be found at http://www.ecmwf.int/tigge
  
  
• Year of Tropical Convection: The realistic representation of tropical convection in our global atmospheric models is a long-standing grand challenge for numerical weather forecasts and global climate predictions. Our lack of fundamental knowledge and practical capabilities in this area leaves us disadvantaged in modeling and predicting prominent phenomena of the tropical atmosphere such as the ITCZ, ENSO, monsoons and their active/break periods, the MJO, subtropical stratus decks, near-surface ocean properties, tropical cyclones, and even the diurnal cycle. To address the challenge of tropical convection, WCRP and WWRP/THORPEX have initiated a project called the Year of Tropical Convection (YOTC), a nearly two year period of coordinated observing, modeling and forecasting of organized tropical convection. During this period, researchers will have access to satellite remote sensing data and special high resolution modeling output from the operational forecast centres that include a wide variety of diagnostics. For further information please see the YOTC Project Office web site at http://www.ucar.edu/yotc/

• Summer colloquium on Advanced Mathematical Methods to Study Atmospheric Dynamical Processes and Predictability will be held at the Banff International Research Station in 2011. The colloquium, which is led by members of the THORPEX Working Group on Predictability and Dynamical Processes will be limited to approximately 42 students. Further information will follow on this web site.

• Preparations underway for CONCORDIASI Project in Antarctica: Concordiasi is an international project with the participation of multiple institutions in France and in the U.S. along with the Met Office of the UK and ECMWF. Its main goals are to provide validation data to improve the usage of polar-orbiting satellite data over Antarctica, in particular IASI radiances, in order to establish a sustainable observing system over Antarctica. A number of additional goals address weather, climate and atmospheric chemistry of the region and its effect on global circulations. CONCORDIASI is part of the THORPEX-IPY cluster within the International Polar Year effort. Two field experiments are part of Concordiasi, one which has occurred during the autumn 2008 (Austral spring) in Antarctica and a second one planned in Austral spring 2010. A test of the stratospheric ballooning and accompanying instrumentation will take place in April 2010 from Mahé (Seychelles Islands). Further information on CONCORDIASI can be found at http://www.cnrm.meteo.fr/concordiasi/. The agenda for the upcoming CONCORDASI science meeting can be found here.

• The HyMeX (HYdrological cycle in the Mediterranean EXperiment) Project becomes a WWRP project: HyMEX received an endorsement at the last meeting of the WWRP Joint Science Committee. HyMex aims at a better understanding and quantification of the hydrological cycle and related processes in the Mediterranean, with emphasis on high-impact weather events, inter-annual to decadal variability of the Mediterranean coupled system, and associated trends in the context of global change. The hydrological cycle in the Mediterranean is a key environmental and socio-economic question for a wide region encompassing southern Europe, northern Africa and the Middle East. Further information on HyMEX can be found at http://www.hymex.org/ with the 4th HyMex Workshop to be held during the 8-12 June 2010.

• 8th meeting of the GIFS-TIGGE Working Group (WMO Headquarters, Geneva, 22-24 February 2010)
  
  

• Presentations - Third THORPEX Science Symposium (Monterey, CA, USA, 14-18 September 2009)