Regional Report on the current status of the exchange of weather radar data.RA VI

Stuart Matthews, UK Met Office on behalf of EUMETNET OPERA

April 24th 2013

GIE/EIG EUMETNET, Registered Number 0818.801.249 - RPM Bruxelles

Outline

• European collaboration (OPERA, BALTRAD, etc)• OPERA Data information model (ODIM)• OPERA Data Centre - Odyssey• OPERA IV• ECOMET• Questions.

GIE/EIG EUMETNET, Registered Number 0818.801.249 - RPM Bruxelles

European exchange (a very brief history)

• Long history of exchanging radar products between nations and at regional level.– Nordic and Baltic (NORDRAD)– Central Europe– NW Europe (UK with IE, F, D, B, NL)

• Huge challenge of formats, product types, bandwidth, national objectives (hydrology, aviation, etc)

• Coordinated collaboration started with GORN and COST actions (late 90s)

• EUMETNET OPERA programme started in 1999

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EUMETNET

• Established so National Weather Services in Europe can be efficient and effective.

• Provides a framework for European National Weather services to work together, share ideas and best practice and share costs of major infrastructure.

• Provide a collective voice when communicating with the European Union and other international bodies

http://www.eumetnet.eu/

GIE/EIG EUMETNET, Registered Number 0818.801.249 - RPM Bruxelles

EUMETNET – OPERAOperational Programme for the Exchange of weather RAdar information

• Started in 1999 and 4th phase has just started with work agreed through to 2017

• 27 members and 3 cooperating members

http://www.eumetnet.eu/opera

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EUMETNET – OPERAOperational Programme for the Exchange of weather RAdar information

• Opportunity for NMS to share information & experiences – 6 month Expert Team meetings, OPERA radar database (feed to WMO db)

• Sponsor work packages performed by various NMSs• Promote standard radar production practices• Help define common data format standards• Organize and support Radar Data protection, e.g. wind farms and

frequency• Support the development and operations of a centralised processing

capability to generate pan-European composites.• The OPERA community has developed several software packages to

enable exchange of radar data from different sources and manufacturers.

http://www.eumetnet.eu/opera

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Other Region VI collaborations and exchange• BALTRAD and BALTRAD+

– EU funded project– Advance weather radar network around Baltic Sea– Most BALTRAD members are also members of OPERA– Strong collaboration between OPERA and BALTRAD especially future

Odyssey development

• Not all Region VI in OPERA or BALTRAD– Network ready radars in most

• ECMWF– US radar data

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ODIM (OPERA Data Information Model)

• Big success of OPERA 3• Pioneered by SMHI

(Sweden) and KNMI (the Netherlands)

• Adapted by OPERA and radar manufacturers.

– ITT in Europe now often contain requirement for ODIM output

• Hierarchical approach• Two encoded versions

developed for OPERA: ODIM-HDF5 and ODMIN-BUFR

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OPERA Data Centre - Odyssey

• 2009 – 2010 OPERA development of centralised capability to produce pan-European composites.

• Operational since January 2011. Joint operational responsibility between UKMO and Météo France

• Both centres processing the same data, creating same products using the same software/algorithms.

• Only one node disseminating products at any given time.

• High level of resilience with simple fail-over procedure. ~99.9% availability

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Primary

Composite User

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OPERA Data Centre - Odyssey

INPUT• ~130 radars• Polar (volumes or sent as

individual sweeps)• Reflectivity and recently

radial winds too. Level II• ODIM compliant BUFR or

HDF5• Mostly use the internet

rather than GTS/RMDCN

OUTPUT• 3 composites

• Max reflectivity,• surface precipitation rate &• hourly accumulation

• Uniform quality• No-stitching• BUFR and HDF5• 2km• 15 min updates, available

DT+15minutes• Whole European domain

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Country Status

Country Volume or Scan

Temporal Res

Wind? HDF or BUFR

Belgium Volumes 5 min HDF

Croatia Volumes 15 min YES HDF

Czech Rep1 Volumes 15 min HDF

Denmark Volumes 10 min YES HDF

Estonia Volumes 15 min HDF

Finland Volumes 15 min YES HDF

France Scans 5 min BUFR

Germany Scans 15 min BUFR

Iceland Volumes 15 min HDF

Ireland1 Volumes 5 min HDF

Operationally receiving data from 20 countries

1Countries using RMDCN to send

data

Country Volume or Scan

Temporal Res

Wind? HDF or BUFR

Netherlands Volumes 5 min YES HDF

Norway Volumes 15 min HDF

Poland Volumes 10 min HDF

Romania Volumes 5 – 10 min Both

Serbia Volumes 5 min HDF

Slovakia Volumes 5 min HDF

Slovenia Volumes 10 min YES HDF

Spain Volumes 10 min HDF

Sweden Scans 5 min HDF

UK & Jersey Scans 5 min HDF

Various temporal resolutions. 7 x 15min, 5 x 10min and 8 x 5min

Most send volumes but some single elevation 16 x Volumes and 4 x individual scans but these account for nearly 60 radars

As of February 2013, 5 countries send wind data in the volumes

Most countries use HDF5. 2x BUFR (over 40 radars), 17 x HDF5 and one country uses both

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OPERA Data Centre – 2011 to 2013

March 2011 (Dec 2012)

April 2013

1st pre-processing using BALTRAD’s toolboxBelgium, Croatia and Denmark added

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OPERA 4, 2013 to 2017

• New OPERA phase started in January 2013• Consortium of National Met Service led by FMI (Finland) and

includes Sweden, France, UK and Croatia. Additional contribution from Poland, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Denmark, Belgium

• Producing a framework for collecting and generating quality index for incoming (generated at national level) and pre-processed (generated by Odyssey) data

• Redistribution of incoming data, with centrally generated QI, to NWP centres.

• Develop pre-processing modules with capability to produce products to at least same quality as national composites

• Develop 3D composites

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ECOMET

• ECOMET. Economic Interest Group under Belgian Law• Created in 1995 and has 25 members• Created to:

• Preserve free and unrestricted exchange of meteorological information for operational functions

• To ensure wide availability of basic met data and products for commercial application

• Members make a wide range of radar products (Level III) available through a catalogue. Includes price.

• Developed policy for exchanging data between most European countries

• Data policy, including price, for Odyssey products almost agreed

GIE/EIG EUMETNET, Registered Number 0818.801.249 - RPM Bruxelles

Conclusions

• Most European exchange is organised by EUMETNET through its OPERA programme

• Regional networks are also well established (BALTRAD) and developing (Russia and her neighbours)

• Common data model (ODIM) has significantly simplified the exchange

• Now into 3rd year of the operational European data hub generating pan European composite products

• OPERA 4• Framework for adding quality information to incoming volumes• Development of pre-processing algorithms to improve quality• Redistribution of raw data plus centrally produced quality index

• Commercially available Odyssey products