ALADIN Newsletter 26

On the 13th of February, just after the last ALATNET meeting, the so-called « AAA » meeting (AROME-ALARO-ALADIN) was held in Prague. Discussions allowed to give some clarifications on the interconnection of the three « A » and also some guidelines to start working on ALADIN2.
See http://www.cnrm.meteo.fr/aladin/meetings/AAA.html for more details.

1.1.2.ALATNET : the end

Exactly 2 months after the end of the ALATNET project and as requested by the E.C., the ALATNET final report (see photo) was flying to Brussels. The ALATNET website is fully up-to-date now (including this last report on-line) ! Each ALATNET centre will receive a paper copy of the final report with a CD containing the full web site in its very last version. Many thanks and congratulations to all participants to the ALATNET adventure !!!
More informations on http://www.cnrm.meteo.fr/alatnet/.

1.1.3.Training course on ALADIN and NH dynamics

A training course on NH dynamics and the main ALADIN features was organized in Toulouse on March 15-19, 2004. Students were HIRLAM scientists and ALADIN newcomers. More informations, including lectures and a few conclusions, are available on-line :
http://www.cnrm.meteo.fr/aladin/meetings/NHtraining.html

1.1.4.14th ALADIN-Workshop

The 14th ALADIN-Workshop, organised by ZAMG, was held from 1-4 June 2004 in Innsbruck, Austria. More than 50 colleagues from ALADIN countries and two HIRLAM scientists attended the workshop.

Most topics of interest for the ALADIN scientists and users were considered within the 43 presentations and 5 working groups. However more focus was given to critical ALADIN-2 topics, especially the main one "Which physics at which scales for limited-area models ?". Discussions on predictability issues, with most researchers meeting for the first time, were also quite successful.

More detailed information about the workshop, on-line presentations and reports from discussions, can be found under : http://www.zamg.ac.at/workshop2004/ .

1.1.5.Enhanced cooperation with the HIRLAM group

The HIRLAM group has to face very similar challenges as the ALADIN one for the coming years : developing applications at very high resolution while simultaneously improving the forecast skill at the present operational scales and limiting maintenance burden, with contributions from several but rather small NWP teams.

So they now considerer a move towards AROME for their kilometric-scale target application, this also meaning a far closer cooperation with ALADIN, with going towards the same model, i.e. the ALARO package including the main HIRLAM specificities, for use at all scales. The diplomatic aspects of the cooperation require however a clearer definition, and will be jointly examined at the next HIRLAM Advisory Committee and Council, and at the Assembly of ALADIN Partners.

But collaboration in research mode has been already effective for years, and intensive training of HIRLAM scientists on ALADIN has now started. We had a few ALADIN scientists knowing how to run HIRLAM, the reverse is now true ! And some specific actions, such as the design of a suitable ALADIN geometry for the very large HIRLAM domains, or the plug-in of HIRLAM physics in ALADIN (for preliminary comparisons) are on the way.

The HIRLAM deputy leader for high-resolution modelling, Bent Hansen Sass (DMI, bhs++at++dmi.dk) and the project leader, Per Unden (SMHI, per.unden++at++smhi.se), are the main contact points.

1.2.Announcements

1.2.1.Good bye ...

An important change happened in the leadership of the NWP team at the Hungarian Meteorological Service. Gabor Radnoti (now gabor.radnoti++at++ecmwf.int) joined the ECMWF team for a 2-years job. He is the fourth ALADIN scientist leaving for Reading, after Martin, Marta and Vanda. His successor at HMS is Sandor Kertesz.

Philippe Caille (alias Touffe), the famous specialist of observations and coffee breaks, left the GMAP team for a more "communication" oriented position.

Alfred Quinet, the head of the Belgian team, retired. He significantly contributed to the project's life, having Belgium enter the ALADIN partnership and the ALATNET project, and contributing to the refinement of the Memorandum of Understanding and to the definition of the role and scope of ALADIN-NORAF.

1.2.2.A new ALADIN website

After long months of cleaning and porting under open softwares, a newly updated ALADIN web site is available, with the following innovations:

The last joined ALADIN/ALATNET Newsletter (ALADIN 25, ALATNET 8) is available through 2 pdf files (the smaller one for on-line consulting and the bigger one for better quality printing). An improved presentation and paper copies should be available soon.

A website will be dedicated to the new ALADIN-2 actions once the new host Linux PC will be available. Meanwhile, the relevant informations on will be available through :
http://www.cnrm.meteo.fr/aladin/aladin2.html.
A specialized AROME site will be designed too.

e.g. the two last reports from stays, a documentation on the porting on AL26T1 on IBM, information on the prototypes, and the developers' bedside reading : "New coding rules for ARPEGE/IFS/ALADIN".

1.2.3.Workshops, meetings and training courses in 2004

1.2.4.Next ...

Do not hesitate to have a look at the "Meetings" pages of the ALADIN web site or at the SRNWP web site : http://srnwp.cscs.ch/

1.2.5.Support to travels : “KIT” money

This Météo-France funding supports coordination visits, e.g. to enable "all" ALADIN countries to be represented at the annual ALADIN or EWGLAM workshops.

1.2.6. Aladin correspondents

Participation registration: in order to make easier the http interface tool, some no longer “active” people and fundings have been removed from the proposed list. Of course, all the data concerning these people and fundings are kept in the data base. The criteria to define a not “active” person are a mixture of conditions on the date of the last registered action, the number of actions and other information received in Toulouse about changes in the teams. Please, let me know if you want some one to be added to the list or to be be removed from it.

The statistics have been updated with all contributions at the end of March 2004 and new graphics are available. As soon as all contributions for the second quarter are registered, statistics will be updated again.

The coordala email was first created for ALADIN correspondents (i.e. Persons responsible of the participations) at the rate of 1 correspondent per country. It is now used for exchanges between scientists in charge, representatives and correspondents in all countries. Therefore the list of addresses in coordala has been extended accordingly. Just a reminder, in order to avoid spam when one sends a message to coordala, this message is only received by Eric and Patricia who then re send it to a similar list (obviously if it is a spam, then it is not sent).

1.3.ALADIN 2

The last months were fruitful for the ALADIN2 project. On the 13^th of February, the so-called « AAA » meeting (Arome-Alaro-Aladin) was held in Prague. This meeting was the opportunity to give some clarifications on the interconnexion of the three « A » and also some guidelines to start working on ALADIN2. See, http://www.cnrm.meteo.fr/aladin/meetings/AAA.html for more details.

Following this meeting, a work plan for the year 2004 and early 2005 has been written that plans the work and developments inside ALADIN2. The organization is built around five sub-projects. Some of them are devoted to specific horizontal scales: AROME-2 (AROME nominal resolution, i.e. 2,5 km where the convection is resolved explicitly), ALARO-5 (also called the grey-zone where the convection is not fully resolved) and ALARO-10 (for regional scales around 10 km where a parametrization of the convection is needed).

The others sub-projects are transversal ones: INTERFACES (flexibility, exchanges between models and physical packages), ALAROPAC (for assimilation, predictability and coupling) and ALAD1 (operations). One can see http://www.cnrm.meteo.fr/aladin/scientific/2004-program.html to get the work plan on line.

The implications of this important preliminary definition and organizational work could have been felt during the Innsbrück meeting all along the working groups, presentations and discussions. One practical aspect of the WP04 is also the possibility to have a glance at the (very) first AA prototypes on-line: http://www.cnrm.meteo.fr/aladin/aladin2/prototype.html.

The bend towards AROME is now taken, hopping that the road will bring us many scientific challenges and forecast improvements.

Besides the usual coordination team, 2 persons were appointed for specific support actions to ALADIN-2. Maria Derkova (Sk) is responsible for the coordination of the upgrade of operational suites. Bart Catry (Be) is in charge of the design of an improved physics-dynamics interface, a key task with the diversification of physical packages (from 1 to 3, not counting the native Méso-NH one, or more).

1.4.Gossip

Thanks to the new rules, the use of Open Office, the careful design of style-sheets and links by Jean Maziejewski, and more consideration from contributors, the present Newsletter will be ready within a reasonable delay !
(roughly 1 month work for 2 Newsletters instead of 2 months for 1 this summer)

2.1.Introduction

Please do not forget to send informations on the main operational changes to Patricia Pottier (patricia.pottier++at++meteo.fr) so that she may update the corresponding pages on the ALADIN web site !

2.2.Changes in the operational version of ARPEGE

2.3.Austria

Since May 2004 ALADIN-AUSTRIA has been put into operational use at ZAMG. Its main features are : LACE domain, 9.6 km resolution in horizontal, 45 levels in vertical. Both the ALADIN-LACE and the ALADIN-VIENNA models do not run operationally any more. More details about ALADIN-AUSTRIA are in the dedicated paper.

2.4.Belgium

2.5.Bulgaria

2.6.Croatia

No changes along the last months. See the report on research and developments (§3.4) for details on verification and case studies.

2.7.Czech Republic

2.8.France

2.9.Hungary

In the operational suite of the ALADIN model, there were no changes in the first part of 2004.

Beside the operational model version, in parallel suite the following versions were integrated and compared (see the article of Helga Toth (5.8) on the subjective evaluation of the ALADIN model):
a) ALADIN dynamical adaptation at 12 km resolution
b) ALADIN 3D-Var at 12 km resolution

It is noted here that an invitation to tender (ITT) was initiated to upgrade our computer system. Three companies were applying to the tender : HP, SGI and IBM. The final decision was in favour of IBM with the following system :
IBM p655 cluster server 4 * 8 processors (1,7 Ghz) with 2 Gbyte/processor memory.
The initial capacity of the new (highly expandable) system will be approximately 1,5 times bigger than the already existing Regatta system.

2.10.Morocco

2.11.Poland

2.12.Portugal

During the first half of 2004 some effort was put on the installation of ALADIN on a new machine, making possible the increase of the coupling frequency and the number of vertical levels, besides the increase of the local domain. In addition, significant attention was given to the objective verification of ALADIN products and to its comparison with ECMWF forecasts. Moreover, after a validation period, some instability indexes (Jefferson, Total-Totals and Convective Instability) computed from ALADIN forecasts became pre-operational. Other diagnostic tools, such as low-level moisture convergence, vorticity advection and temperature advection, became also pre-operational. Finally, the validation of CANARI is going on.

2.13.Romania

The switch to new coupling files (larger domain and 41 vertical levels instead of 31) for the SELAM domain (covering the Bulgarian and Romanian ones) was prepared by Cornel Soci. This is part of a general upgrade of the operational suite, which will be described in the next Newsletter.

2.14.Slovakia

The main event during the first half of 2004 was related to delivering, installation and operational tuning of the new high performance computing system IBM @server pSeries 690, Typ 7040 Model 681, 32 processors POWER 4+ 1,7 GHz , 32 GB RAM of memory, IBM FASt T600 Storage Server + EXP700 – 1,5TB.

The operational suite is expected from the beginning of July with the following parameters:
- code version AL25T2
- domain 320×288 points
- horizontal resolution 9.0 km
- 37 vertical levels
- time step 400 s
- 48 hours forecast, twice per day
- dynamical adaptation.

The operational suite has been completely overwritten with respect to the on-line monitoring and documentation tool that has been developed in house. This tool is based on Perl script and the internal web interface. The pre-operational suite has been launched for 1 month with emphasis on testing the queuing and batch system. A complete output result from post-processing is expected 1 hour after receiving LBC files from Toulouse.

2.15.Slovenia

During the first half of 2004 nothing changed in the operational suite except including some additional products in the output for our users. Computation of products for PEPS project and for RODOS match and lsmc modules was prepared but not yet put into operation.

2.16.Tunisia

3.1.Austria

3.2.Belgium

3.3.Bulgaria

3.4.Croatia

3.5.Czech Republic

3.6.France

3.7.Hungary

3.8.Morocco

3.9.Poland

3.10.Portugal

3.11.Romania

3.12.Slovakia

Local work focussed on the implementation of the operational suite on the new computer. See the report on operations

3.13.Slovenia

RD_Slovenie.pdf

3.14.Tunisia

4.1.Introduction

A ALADIN new doctor since April 20th : Cornel Soci (second ALATNET doctor)
Research topic : Sensitivity study at high resolution using a limited-area model and its adjoint for the mesoscale range

4.2.Radi AJJAJI : Incrementality deficiency in ARPEGE 4d-var assimilation scheme

4.3.Steluta ALEXANDRU : Scientific strategy for the implementation of a 3D-Var data assimilation scheme for a double-nested limited-area model

4.4.Margarida BELO-PEREIRA : Estimation and study of forecast error covariances using an ensemble method in a global NWP model

A method based on an ensemble of analysis has been tested and evaluated in ARPEGE 4D-Var. The global and local covariances have been diagnosed, and compared with those of the NMC method. Moreover, some impact studies have been performed in the ARPEGE 4D-Var, with respect to the global background error covariances, and also concerning the local background error variances. It was verified that the use of the "ensemble" statistics has a positive impact on the forecasts of non-stretched ARPEGE. A publication about these results is under preparation.

Then operational duties at home (see e.g. the proceedings of the 14th ALADIN workshop).

4.5.Karim BERGAOUI : Further improvement of a simplified 2d variational soil water analysis

4.6.Vincent GUIDARD : Evaluation of assimilation cycles in a mesoscale limited-area model

4.7.Jean-Marcel PIRIOU : Correction of compensating errors in physical packages; validation with special emphasis on cloudiness representation

Work on lateral entrainment of deep convective clouds, and its link with environmental moisture. Deal with CRM data to get this sensitivity of entrainment to environmental moisture.

4.8.Raluca RADU : Extensive study of the coupling problem for a high-resolution limited-area model

Extensive validation of the new method : see the Romanian contribution to research and developments (§3.11) .

4.9.Wafaa SADIKI : A posteriori verification of analysis and assimilation algorithms and study of the statistical properties of the adjoint solutions

4.10.Andre SIMON : Study of the relationship between turbulent fluxes in deeply stable PBL situations and cyclogenetic activity. See the ALATNET final report for the most recent results.

4.11.Klaus STADLBACHER : Systematic qualitative evaluation of high-resolution non-hydrostatic model

Nothing new (operational and administrative duties at home, including the organization of the 14th ALADIN workshop : http://www.zamg.ac.at/workshop2004/).

4.12.Simona STEFANESCU : The modelling of the forecast error covariances for a 3D-Var data assimilation in an atmospheric limited-area model

4.13.Malgorzata SZCZECH-GAJEWSKA : Use of IASI/AIRS observations over land.

During this period, the validation of the emissivity database for infra-red sounders was evaluated with AIRS data. Results confirm prior results with HIRS : for surface-peaking channels, the use of the new emissivity values slightly improves the agreement between observations and model values with respect to the standard 0.98 value. A very preliminary draft of a paper has been written.

4.14.Jozef VIVODA : Application of the predictor-corrector method to non-hydrostatic dynamics

5.1.Summary of answers to the LAMEPS questionnaire (HMS)

5.2.Preliminary results of LAMEPS experiments at the Hungarian Meteorological Service

5.3.Choice for radiance-bias correction for a limited-area model

5.4.Radar Reflectivity Data Assimilation

5.5.Some facts about CY28T1

5.6.Some details about ALADIN physics in cycle 28T1

5.7.ALADIN and GMKPACK at ECMWF

5.8.Detailed case study of a dramatic winter temperature overestimation in the ALADIN/HU model

5.9.Subjective evaluation of different versions of the ALADIN/HU model

5.10.ALADIN-AUSTRIA : increasing the vertical resolution in ALADIN

5.11.First experiments with ALARO-10km

5.12.Limitations of projected limited-area spectral models for large-domains

6.1.Balsamo G., F. Bouyssel and J. Noilhan:

2004: A simplified bi-dimensional variational analysis of soil moisture from screen-level observations in a mesoscale numerical weather-prediction model.Q.J.R.M.S. Vol.130 Part A n° 598, pp 895-915. http://www.royalmetsoc.org/

6.2.Geleyn J-F and P. Bénard:

2004: An efficient approximation of the Malkmus band-model average equivalent width for the case of the Voigt line-profile. Q.J.R.M.S., vol.130 Part X no. 598, pp xxx-xxx. http://www.royalmetsoc.org/