Three years after the field phase the MAP Steering Committee (MSC) found itself surprisingly busy with a number of important issues. In a very broad sense they are related to dealing with MAP’s results and are, as such, important and exciting. A first workshop on societal impact took place in order to start the process of demonstrating that MAP indeed was capable of benefiting the public at large. On a more detailed level, there are still numerous aspects of the SOP data that need careful attention, e.g the final results of the about-to-end data quality control project, the Vaisala radio sounding dry bias problem, and the SOP reanalysis. Finally, the dissemination of the MAP results in journals and conferences is proceeding very well.
In the following a report is given on the MSC Meetings of Park City, UT,
USA 21-22 June 2002, and Bad Tölz, Germany 25-26 October 2002.
Some of the issues discussed in these meetings are reported on
in separate articles in this newsletter.
Societal impact studies on research activities become increasingly important.
The WMO WWRP (World Weather Research Programme) advised MAP to include a societal
impact component to demonstrate the utility of the research goals when related
to end users and the public. Four societal impact experts were invited to a
first dedicated one-day workshop organized in Bad Tölz, Germany 24-25 October 2002
( see MAP-Societal Impact Workshop on page 3), just before the forth MSC Meeting.
After a number of presentations of both communities a strawman scenario for the Lago Maggiore
area was discussed to seek a possible collaboration. On the scientific side, it became evident
that dealing with uncertainties is crucial to the problem, and that probabilistic forecasts
are an adequate means for this once the users learn how to use them. On the other hand, it
became equally clear that the interaction with the variety of end users constitutes a challenge
beyond meteorology and hydrology. The ICAM/MAP Meeting 2003, calls explicitly for societal
impact papers related to extreme weather in the Alpine region, and plans on inviting a keynote
on the subject.
It is obvious that data activities are central to the Evaluation Phase of MAP.
In 2001 MAP issued a call for tenders for a reanalysis of the SOP data.
The ECMWF was assigned the task and completed the reanalysis in 2002
( see Status of the MAP-SOP Reanalysis Project on page 3).
E. Richard found some surprisingly large differences for IOP reruns when using the reanalysis
as initial and boundary conditions as compared with the operational analysis.
The MSC encouraged intensive numerical experimentation with the reanalysis in order to establish
which analysis is best. To this end, the reanalysis and the analysis, as produced by
the currently operational system, for the first month of the SOP is transferred to the
MDC.
MAP placed an accent on data quality by introducing the effort DAQUAMAP (Data Quality Monitoring in MAP)
early in the programme in 1997. The main goal of DAQUAMAP is to assess the performance of conventional
in situ meteorological measurements in the MAP data domain, which comprises well over 10’000 stations
that are run by several dozens of different institutions, in order to produce a more homogeneous data
set for the entire Alpine region. DAQUAMAP ends at the end of 2002 and will provide the following deliverables:
The final report will be written in the spirit of a scientific publication and feature a four-page flyer to be distributed to EUMETNET. A review panel chaired by H. Volkert has been appointed to oversee the production of the final report.
A specific data problem that needs to be dealt with is the dry bias of the humidity measurement of the Vaisala RS80 radio sonde. C. Häberli, University of Vienna and MeteoSwiss, was assigned the task to apply correction schemes to SOP radio sounding data. MAP- NWS funds this activity with 25kEuro. An article on the dry bias correction of the SOP radio sonde data is planned for the next issue of the MAP newsletter.
Dissemination of MAP results is an important task of the MSC. At present, this is pursued with special issues of international scientific journals, and international conferences. As announced in MAP newsletter 16, a special issue of the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society (QJ) will be devoted to results of the SOP. The twenty-five accepted papers provide a good and representative balance between the eight SOP projects. The volume is planned as the January 2003 C issue of the QJ. Another special issue on the MAP SOP is in the process of being produced for the Journal Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (HESS).
To further enhance dissemination of MAP results, the annual MAP Meeting 2002 was combined with the AMS Mountain Meteorology Conference (MMC), which took place 17-21 June 2002 in Park City, UT, USA. Both the MAP and the AMS community, deemed the joint conference as very successful that could bear repetition For the same reason, in 2003 the MAP Meeting will be joined to the International Conference on Alpine Meteorology (ICAM), to be held 19-23 May 2003 in Brig, Switzerland ( see “ Ongoing Activities and Future Events” on page 3). For 2004, the MSC is currently negotiating with the AMS regarding a joint MMC/MAP Meeting, while a decision will be taken at the next MSC Meeting in Brig.
Finally, on the scientific side, the working group on radars (WG-RAD) fulfilled its SOP-geared objectives and is no longer active. R. Houze proposed to create a new working group focused on physical aspects of precipitation processes (WG- PP). The working group on hydrology will interact with the newly formed WG-PP but remain distinct. A single working group on the wet aspect of MAP was considered to be too broad.
First activities of the FACT (Forecasting in Alpine and Complex Terrain) initiative were reported in MAP newsletter 16. Since then the action laid dormant as its chairman P. Parson left his position in Innsbruck and no successor has been defined yet. On the other hand, the project Meteorisk, emerged from an Interreg II program, pursues goals that are much in the spirit of FACT. Meteorisk’s main goals are:
The main difference to FACT is Meteorisk’s focus on products that serve the end users that deal with extreme events (e.g. civil protection agency). The MSC would welcome an integration of FACT into Meteorisk.
The next MSC Meeting is planned in the framework of the ICAM/MAP Meeting 2003 in Brig, Switzerland.
