Report from Venice CIG

Following the invitation of our Italian colleagues, the 6th meeting of the Coordination and Implementation Group was held in the Palazzo Balbi, the seat of the regional government of Veneto in the scenic town of Venice on 12 and 13 December 1996.

• A major point on the agenda was the review and coordination of the MAP-related proposals in preparation for submission to the EU (deadline 15 January 1997). Philippe Bougeault, chairman of the SSC, was invited to the meeting especially for that point.
  
• Discussions on the MAP Data Access Policy were reinitiated by concerns from the US side. Efforts are underway to resolve possible problems.
  
• MAP Operation Centre (MOC): Italy presented the candidature of Milano-Linate as possible site for the MOC. Austria signalled the possibility of substantial support for locating the MOC in Innsbruck. Funding of the MAP SOP by the EU would ease to open national Austrian funds.
  
• The discussion on the definition of the target areas was launched. Target areas are those geographical domains where ground-based instruments will be concentrated during the SOP. There are several aspects to be respected:
  
  • high probability of the occurrence of the meteorological phenomena central to the MAP objectives,
  • matching the needs and interests of the international community,
  • coping with organizational, technical and administrative constraints.
    

Crucial to the number of target areas which can be envisaged are the participating ground-based observing platforms. Preliminary discussions suggested that the allocation of two target areas for precipitation studies (to the south of the Alps) and one for Foehn studies (to the north of the Alps) appear realistic. Major efforts in the near future will be devoted to the planning and definition of the target areas.

• A revised version of the MAP Design Proposal has been edited and published. The inclusion of the hydrological aspects of MAP was the main motivation to produce this new edition. It is available in the public domain of the MAP Data Centre.
  
• Currently the various institutions in the Alpine region are delivering meteorological data to the MAP Data Centre. We are optimistic to have a rich and unique data base ready by the mid of 1997, although it will not be complete at that time.
  

MAP Data Centre - October' 00 - MAP WebMaster