Meeting of the WMO SDS-WAS Regional Steering Group for Northern Africa, Middle East and Europe

Castellaneta Marina, Italy, 4 June 2014

Attendees:

Emilio Cuevas, Slobodan Nickovic, Alexander Baklanov, Malcolm Brooks, Michael Schulz, Jose M. Baldasano, Enric Terradellas, Lucia Mona, Kerstin Schepanski, Sang-Sam Lee and Keiya Yumimoto

Draft agenda:

  1. Welcoming. Introduction of participants
  2. Adoption of the agenda
  3. Activities since the RSG meeting in Antalya—
  4. Summary (M. Schulz)
  5. NA-ME-E node (E. Terradellas)
  6. Cooperation with other SDS-WAS nodes
  7. WMO Secretariat (A. Baklanov)
  8. Contributions from RSG members and invitees
  9. Discussion Science and Impementation Plan
  10. Designation of a new RSG Chair
  11. RSG membership
  12. AOB

Minutes:

1. Welcoming. Introduction of participants

  • Michael Schulz, chair of the Regional Steering Group (RSG) welcomes the participants
  • Each participant briefly introduces himself
  • Enric Terradellas is committed to draft the meeting minutes

2. Adoption of the agenda

  • The draft agenda is adopted without amendment.

3. Activities since the RSG meeting in Antalya

  • Michael Schulz summarizes the status of the SDS-WAS Regional node: organization, objectives, remaining scientific problems (soil properties, modelling mesoscale phenomena, accuracy of wind forecasts, aerosol speciation for data assimilation and forecast evaluation), flow of information and cooperation with other groups (MACC, ICAP, MERIT, GESAMP, GAW, ACTRIS, ESA). He highlights some achievements: multi-model products, NRT forecast evaluation, joint evaluation, raw data sharing, capacity building, and cooperation with other groups.
  • Slobodan Nickovic informs about the proposal for a new COST Action, intercomparison with lidars, model intercomparison for April 2011 (N. Huneeus) and the book on dust to be published soon.
  • Enric Terradellas informs about the activities carried out at the RegionalCenter: web portal and archive, models inter-comparison, forecast evaluation, new AERONET stations, capacity building and operational forecasts
  • Discussion about how to encourage the use of SDS-WAS products in Africa and Middle East:
  • The contribution of Egypt has been recognized
  • Possible letter of the WMO to national meteorological and hydrological services (NMHS)
  • Possible article in the WMO Bulletin
  • Possible broadcast through EUMETCast
  • Possible release of an annual SDS-WAS bulletin
  • Possible training course in Morrocco
  • Sang-Sam Lee and Keiya Yumimoto inform on the status of the Asian node: members of the RSG, data exchange and data policy, web portal, model inter-comparison and suggestions: provision of ensemble products for Asia by NAMEE node, participation of NAMEE node in model inter-comparison for Asia, sharing observations in Asia for model evaluation, sharing knowledge for dust modelling
  • Alexander Baklanov informs about the existing and planned nodes, about the trust fund, which is expected to be created, aimed to fund the activities of the Steering Committee (SC). The SC will be formed up to 2 or 3 representatives of each node and eventually other relevant scientists. The SC will meet in 2015 possibly together with the RSGs. Then, it should meet yearly supported by the WMO (within the budget possibilities). He also suggests to build a better coordination of the SDS-WAS activities and observation data usage with the WMO GAW program.
  • The last version of the Science and Implementation Plan shall be revised. Comments and suggestions will be sent to Alexander Baklanov by the end of June.
  • Emilio Cuevas and Slobodan Nickovic are committed to prepare a note about a recent dust storm in Tehran (2 June)
  • Lucia Mona informs about the EARLINET network: stations, products, schedule of measurements, possibility of NRT data provision and future actions
  • Malcolm Brooks informs on the dust-related activities at the UK Met Office: model characteristics, plans to upgrade the model resolution and the data assimilation and ensemble prediction including dust.
  • Jose Baldasano informs on the models run at the BSC-CNS, tests to run the models at higher resolution, evaluation and research challenges.
  • Slobodan Nickovic informs on the dust-related activities in Serbia: data assimilation, dust mineralogy, dust-clouds interaction and high-resolution modelling

5. Designation of a new RSG chair

  • Slobodan Nickovic is designed as the new RSG chair

6. RSG membership

  • The composition of the RSG will be:
  • Slobodan NICKOVIC(chair),RepublicHydrometeorological Service of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia.
  • José María BALDASANO (RC), BarcelonaSupercomputing Center /BSC-CNS), Barcelona, Spain.
  • Emilio CUEVAS-AGULLO (RC). Meteorological State Agency of Spain (AEMET), S. C. Tenerife, Spain.
  • Angela BENEDETTI. European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF),Reading, UK
  • Malcolm BROOKS. Met Office, Exeter, U.K.
  • George KALLOS. University of Athens, Greece
  • Benjamin LAMPTEY, AfricanCenter of Meteorological Applications for Development (ACMAD), Niamey, Niger
  • Lucia MONA, Institute of Methodologies for Environmental Analysis, Potenza, Italy
  • Goran PEJANOVIC. RepublicHydrometeorological Service of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia.
  • Michael SCHULZ,Norwegian Meteorological Institute, Oslo, Norway.
  • Ina TEGEN. Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research, Leipzig, Germany.
  • Ashraf ZAKEY, Egyptian Meteorological Authority, Cairo, Egypt.
  • Alexander BAKLANOV (observer),World Meteorological Organization, Geneva, Switzerland

7. AOB

  • Emilio Cuevas and Enric Terradellas urge the WMO to speed up mechanisms to use the trust fund of AEMET for ACMAD
  • Alexander Baklanov shall clarify the method to make use of that trust fund