ALADIN Main events

1. New ARPEGE-ALADIN libraries : short report about the new cycle AL15

This new cycle, in phase with CY24T1 of ARPEGE/IFS, contains several important technical changes:

• The ODB database (over-layer of Oracle/C++) replaces the CMA observation files.
• The shared memory code has been definitely removed - only mono-tasking, distributed-memory based code is now available. However, a new key LMPOFF can be switched on to switch off (!) any calls to message passing routines. This facility is available for Full-Pos and configuration 001.
• A new message passing library, MPL, replaces the former ECMWF-MPE.
• The spectral transforms have been packed into a separate library: "tfl" (TF24T1 under clearcase) for global spherical, "tal" (TA24T1 under clearcase) for biperiodized fields.

Many scientific improvements, linked to the various CYCORA tests on top of CY22T1, on the stabilisation of the non-hydrostatic version of ALADIN and local code improvements (e.g. SST gridpoint analysis) are present in this cycle. Mostly, the new options are easily accessible via namelist.

An official export version was made available in November. Please note however that the code is not fully validated for all the potentially existing configurations : a fully working code is available for Full-Pos, conf001, NHS/001. Some new options such as the "semi-lagrangian on-demand communications" have been validated as well. The new spectral transform package was prepared in January / February by the Hungarian colleagues as a preparatory work to the actual phasing effort.

On the contrary, the data assimilation has not yet been validated. This is true both for CANARI/OI and Screening/3d-VAR. There, both the impact of the new ODB database and the code changes from CY22 to CY24 still have to be checked. Also, exotic facilities such as singular vectors, NHS/TL+AD have not been validated - e.g. it is known that the NHS/AD is bugged. Thus, none of the data assimilation configurations can be officially granted in the first export version of AL15..

2. A new ALADIN Partner : Tunisia

Tunisia entered the ALADIN partnership in April, as the 15th member, along the rules of the last MoU. Contacts were more than two years old, and a first team of three scientists was set up last year and came twice for training and research in Toulouse. Another two will be trained in September. A first pre-operational version of ALADIN/Tunisia is running in Toulouse, waiting for the implementation of ALADIN-dedicated computers in Tunis.

3. 10-years ALADIN anniversary

The celebration of the 10-years anniversary of the ALADIN project was organized in Paris, on May 31st, by a working group of directors mandated by the last Assembly of Partners (and with significant help from GMAP). It was a great day, as described in the article hereafter. This was also an opportunity to have the new MoU signed by the now 15 Partners.

For more details, read : "Very informal news from the 10th Anniversary of the ALADIN project, Paris May 31 ...".

4. A new MoU

The second ALADIN Memorandum of Understanding was signed on May 31st. It is valid for four years and a half, till the end of November 2005. The main changes are :

• an enlarged definition of the ALADIN partnership, with three levels of "rights versus duties" : Full Member, Associated Member, User;
• more precise guidelines for the commercial use of ALADIN products;
• stricter rules for the registration of the manpower dedicated to ALADIN;
• creation of a Technical Cooperation Standing Committee (TCSC) of for members (Météo-France, a LACE representative, a SELAM representative, a representative of the other partners), in charge of the routine project coordination for technical issues.

The complete document is now available on the ALADIN web site.

5. ALADIN has its booklet !

A nice booklet was edited for the anniversary. Both French and English versions exist. A copy was joined to the "paper" Newsletter. You can also consult the "scanned" booklet .

6. 10th ALADIN workshop

The 10th ALADIN workshop, dedicated to scientific progress and the evaluation of the second medium-term research plan , was organized in Toulouse on June 7-8. It was a real success, with 44 participants from 15 countries. The proceedings are available on the ALADIN web site and published together with the present Newsletters, to avoid a tedious duplication of scientific reports. Let us just quote the chairman of the last session, Andras Horanyi, : " Congratulations to Météo France for organising the workshop: especially for the world record in the number of presentations per day (22, yesterday) " and mention the friendly informal celebration of the 10th ALADIN anniversary, prepared by visitors on the Thursday evening.

7. Meeting of the working group in charge of designing rules for the evaluation of the ALADIN effort

The last Assembly of Partners mandated a working group of five persons : Patricia Pottier (France), Josette Vanderborght (Belgium), Jure Jerman (Slovenia), Andras Horanyi (Hungary) and Doina Banciu (Romania), for solving the problem of the too heterogeneous reporting of the effort dedicated to ALADIN. After preliminary e-mail exchanges, a final meeting was held in Bruxelles, on March 18th. Its conclusions were incorporated in the new MoU. A detailed report is available on the ALADIN web site, and should be read carefully by everyone !

8. A closer ALADIN-HIRLAM cooperation

The 10-years old HIRLAM-GMAP cooperation on NWP-related research topics is evolving towards an enlarged one, involving the other ALADIN partners in more informal exchanges. The latest ALADIN results were presented at the last HIRLAM All Staff Meeting (Reykjavik, 7-9 May), and met significant interest. Some more contact points were chosen and common research topics reviewed with the HIRLAM project leader, Per Unden. For more details contact : Dominique.Giard++at++meteo.fr, or have a look at the HIRLAM web site.

Home