ECMWF's progress report on TDCF migration, March 2015 rolled out (really good summary of the situation)

ECMWF notified that their "progress report on TDCF migration" dated
March 2015 is now available on the TDCF wiki page:
https://software.ecmwf.int/wiki/display/TCBUF/ECMWF

This is a very good summary of the situation, not only in their center
but for entire world. You can find my name as information source.

Eerola, 2003: Statistics of the arrival times of conventional observations for HIRLAM at FMI

NWP systems wait for observation data coming in a little amount of time after the time of observation.  It is called cut-off time because the data coming after the time is virtually discarded as if it's on a cut wire of telegraph.  How long should we wait is a question.  The WMO Manual on GDPFS says the target of reporting is 3 hours after the observation time.  How is the reality?

I found an article in HIRLAM newsletter:
Eerola, 2003: Statistics of the arrival times of conventional observations for HIRLAM at FMI
http://hirlam.org/index.php/component/docman/doc_view/634-hirlam-newsletter-no-44-article06-kalle-eerola?Itemid=70

The finding is

• Two hours is almost complete data for surface, aircraft and satob
• Upper-air observation namely TEMP and PILOT comes slower, and three hours needed for complete set

FMI seems to have shorten the cut-off from 2.5 hours to probably two hours.  Three hours wait was considered way too much even with the additional upper-air data is taken into account. 

One thing to note is the study was for european regional model, and may be a bit different in global model.

Portugese TAC TEMP extended to June 24th

European source says the TAC TEMP report from Portugal is extended to June 24th to ensure users migration.  Before it was planned to disseminate B/C 25 compliant TEMP BUFR on April, and if that isn't changed, we'll have two month of parallel distribution to ensure migration works.



Reference:

TOYODA Eizi's blog: [non-METNO] Portugal terminates alphanumeric TEMP/SHIP/SYNOP on 22 April

Kobayashi et al(2015), J.Meteor.Soc.Japan: The JRA-55 Reanalysis: General Specifications and Basic Characteristics

A documentation of JMA’s reanalysis JRA-55 is now available on Journal of Meteorological Society of Japan:

http://dx.doi.org/10.2151/jmsj.2015-001

 

I’m not involved in the scientific content at all, but I’d feel guilty to some extent if it is hard to understand their documentation on the extensions GRIB Edition 1

http://rda.ucar.edu/datasets/ds628.0/#!docs

 

Not so many people in the short- and mid-term forecast operations would consider the WMO code FM92-XI Ext. GRIB Edition 1 is “active” format.  But the reanalysis community is different.  ECMWF reanalysis is distributed in GRIB1, and that’s leading the community.  I don’t say that’s good or bad.  My only concern is the documentation of GRIB1 has to be preserved and kept available for future reference.

 

[non-METNO] Portugal terminates alphanumeric TEMP/SHIP/SYNOP on 22 April

There is information from several sources that Portugal is going to
terminate alphanumeric TEMP/SHIP/SYNOP on Wednesday 22 April 2015.
Unfortunately the news was not brought to me via official channels of
WMO, but certain reliable people are involved in the situation.

* https://software.ecmwf.int/wiki/display/TCBUF/TEMP
* https://software.ecmwf.int/wiki/display/TCBUF/SYNOP
* https://software.ecmwf.int/wiki/display/TCBUF/SHIP+and+TEMP+SHIP
* IPET-MDRD forum
https://groups.google.com/a/wmo.int/d/msg/cbs-ipet-drmm/O66TMvKGOAg/iVmSRTLq7_EJ


We are interested in the updates. Mainland Portugal is not a big
country, but they operate stations in Atlantic islands where station
observation is really rare.

* 08508 Lajes (Acores) http://toyoda-eizi.net/wmo9/vola/idxnum/08508
* 08522 Funchal (Madeira) http://toyoda-eizi.net/wmo9/vola/idxnum/08522

So far GISC/RTH/RSMC Tokyo is not receiving BUFR versions of the
reports. I found IU[KS]A0[12] LPMG at GISC Melbourne, but the content
is reformatted BUFR in separated parts A and B as far as I checked on
Wednesday and Thursday. Code experts say the BUFR will be B/C
compliant, so what we see now cannot be used as sample for
preparation.

It is really important that NWP centers have real example in advance.
Every NWP centers in my knowledge filter incoming reports by GTS
heading and/or staion identifiers. The common practice is that the
data is removed from the blacklist (or added to whitelist) only after
confirmation of the quality of data for certain period of time.
Abrupt changes without advance notice will cause interruption of data,
which has negative impact on the quality of forecasts. The impact
might be small this particular time, but in general we cannot welcome
sudden change of operation.

Test dissemination of Himawari-8 image via the HimawariCast

Source:
http://www.data.jma.go.jp/mscweb/en/himawari89/himawari_cast/himawari_cast.html#TestDissemination

follow-up: DWD's change on data policy: sfc & 700hPa are essential upto 72h fcst

(This post is a follow-up of my previous one http://toyoda-eizi.blogspot.jp/2015/03/wmo-op-news-germany-seemingly.html )

 

I’ve spent a bit more time comparing 2004 and 2015 versions of Germany’s letter regarding designation of their “additional data” with respect to Resolution 40 (Cg-XII).

 

1.     SYNOP – little changed

 

The key change between 2004 and 2015 is addition of BUFR version of surface station observation.  I’m not surprised that several stations appeared and disappeared during the decade, since we have seen many notifications of that kind.

 

2.     CLIMAT – no additional bulletins anymore

 

The 2004 version included several additional CLIMAT reports: CSDL45-48 EDZW, which is no longer disseminated from Offenbach.  Some of the stations in the report are available in other headings now.

 

3.     GRIB – resolution changed; surface and 700 hPa are essential until 72 h forecast

 

The key change is increased horizontal resolution from 1.5 degree to 0.25 degree, as I mentioned before.  Also it is notable that the data on the surface and 700 hPa level are declared essential upto 72 hour forecast.

 

(1)   2004 version – 1.5 degree resolution

 

a. Essential up to 72 h, and Additional up to 168 h

 

-       Sea level (89): pressure (P)

-       850 & 500 hPa: geopotential height (H), temperature (T), U and V winds

-       300 hPa: H, U, V

-       700 hPa: relative humidity (R)

 

b. Additonal for analysis and all forecast times

 

-       Surface(98): T, U, V, precipitation (E, no analysis)

-       Land surface(88): T

-       850 hPa: R, equivalent potential temperature (Q)

-       700 hPa: H, T, U, V, vertical velocity (O)

-       500 hPa: R, O

-       300 hPa: T

-       250, 200, 100, 50 hPa: H, T, U, V

-       Entire atmosphere(00): stability KX index (X)

 

(2)   2015 version – 0.25 degree resolution

 

a. Essential up to 72 h, and Additional up to 168 h

 

-       Sea level: P

-       Surface: T, U, V, E, cloudiness (B)

-       850, 700, 500, 300 hPa: H, T, U, V

-       700 hPa: R

 

b. Additonal for analysis and all forecast times

 

-       600, 400, 250, 200, 100, 50 hPa: H, T, U, V

-       850 hPa: R, Q

-       700 hPa: O

-       500 hPa: R, O

 

 

[WMO Op News] US-NOAA starts BUOY BUFR for TAO array

The WMO Operational Newsletter updated Friday 6th
http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/ois/Operational_Information/Newsletters/current_news_en.html
says that the US NOAA started to disseminate BUOY BUFR effective 2nd
March 2015.

I'm not an expert of oceanography, but if I understand right
http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/tao/
explains what kind of data it is.

By the way American announcement seems to have wrong URL for their
notice page -
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/notif.htm
seems to be the correct one.

[WMO Op News] Germany (seemingly) declassified some "additional" GRIBs

The WMO operational newsletter says Germany sent a new notification of their data policy.  The new notification contains fewer list of additional data, so some GRIB products (0.25 degree resolution forecasts) are probably declassified as "essential" data policy. 

p.s. update posted.