During the MAP week of 9-13 June 1997 in Belgirate the International Governing Panel (IGP), the Scientific Steering Committee (SSC), the Coordination and Implementation Group (CIG), and, for the first time, the Board of MAP-NWS, the optional EUMETNET project in support of MAP, held regular meetings. The important issues and decisions are reported in the following.
The CIG met prior to Belgirate for its 7th meeting on 5/6 May 1997 at the headquarters of DWD in Offenbach/Main. The main goal of the meeting was to assemble an inventory of possible observational instrumentation for the field phase, to propose target areas, and to sketch the MAP Science Plan.
A list of the proposed instrumentation for the MAP-SOP has been compiled in order to get an idea of the possible equipment during the field experiment. Most of the observational platforms form part of national or EU proposals with still uncertain funding status. Hence, this list is of tentative nature, but, nevertheless, gives a very valuable first indication. The latest version of it, updated according to the funding status of the corresponding proposals, is available at the PO.
The CIG also discussed the choice of the target areas for the principal MAP objectives. It was recognized that "target" areas are to be distinguished from "mission" areas. Target areas will be covered with substantial additional ground-based observing platforms. Mission areas, on the other hand, are characterized by the occurrence of the interesting phenomena and will be mainly covered by aircraft missions but not by additional ground-based means. Of course, to provide maximum observational coverage of the desired phenomena, research aircraft missions are also carried out over the target areas. The Lago Maggiore area has been chosen as the main target area for heavy precipitation studies, the Rhine Valley between the town of Chur and the Lake of Constance for Foehn flow in a large valley, and the Brenner pass for gap flow studies. The Veneto-Friuli-Slovenia area constitutes a preferred mission area for heavy precipitation events, whereas missions areas for PV-banner, wake-flow and gravity-wave phenomena can be found over and downstream of the Alps, depending on the situation.
A first skeleton of the MAP Science Plan was drafted in preparation for the SSC meeting in Belgirate.
Furthermore an extensive review of the contents of the MAP database was conducted and measures initiated to fill the existing gaps.
Last but not least, Carlo Cacciamani has been elected vice-chairman of the CIG.
The SSC regretted the low motivation of some, even major, data providers to fulfil their commitment to deliver the data sets for the MAP database. After the proper SSC session on Monday morning, 9 June 1997, in Belgirate the SSC joined with the CIG to treat the major items on the agenda.
The MAP Science Plan is a document describing the scientific objectives of MAP more specifically than the Design Proposal. To initiate work on the MAP Science Plan, the general structure has been defined and writing assignments for the various sections distributed. The individual sections have to focus on (i) the topics of interest, (ii) the hypotheses, (iii) the specific needs for observational data, and (iv) the appropriate measurement strategies. After the drafting phase and a consultation within the MAP community a consolidated version should be available for the MAP planning meeting in the U.S. coming February. Also, the SSC accepted the target and mission areas proposed by the CIG for the design of the MAP SOP.
The WG-AC has seriously evaluated two candidate airports to host the MAP Operations Centre, namely Innsbruck and Milano-Linate. After consideration of all available information, the SSC/CIG formulated a recommendation to the IGP, being aware that both airports have their specific advantages and drawbacks. It has not been possible to propose a final choice. Rather, it has been recognized that inspections by the NCAR and NOAA flight facilities are indispensable and more information about funding issues is needed.
Of the six MAP EU-proposals (see Newsletter 6) only RAPHAEL will be funded. It aims at coupling atmospheric and hydrological models to improve flood prediction. In addition, SMART has been put on the unofficial reserve list for funding. It is, to some extent, complementary to RAPHAEL as its goal is to establish a full soil moisture climatology. The remaining 4 proposals were turned down so that, in particular, alternative funding has to be sought for the MAP/SOP proposa, which covered important contributions to the field experiment.
In the afternoon of Tuesday, 10 June 1997, the IGP convened for its third meeting. The most important items on the agenda were the adoption of the revised MAP data access policy and the decision on the location of the MAP Operation Centre.
The IGP was informed about the current version of the MAP data access policy after the hectic negotiation phase just prior to Belgirate. However, there were still open points on which no agreement had been reached between the U.S. and European negotiators. Therefore the adoption of the policy was postponed. Indeed, several iterations took place during the Belgirate week and an agreed version of the MAP data access policy was ready on 20 June 1997. In the meanwhile this new policy was adopted by the IGP by correspondence. (See separate article in this Newsletter.)
As to the MAP Operation Centre, a decision has yet to be made. Therefore, the IGP, based on the recommendation of SSC/CIG, urged the Austrian and Italian representatives to take the necessary steps in order to prepare for a sound decision on the location of the MAP Operation Centre. This decision has to be made by the end of this year.
Furthermore, the IGP, representing the major data providers, accepted a proposal to include the gridded daily precipitation analyses> since 1971 in the "Supplemental" data category of the MDC. These are based on the high-resolution precipitation data and have been produced by Ch. Frei and Ch. Schär (Atmospheric Science ETH). Also, the Terms of Reference of the Forecasters' Working Group (WG-FC) have been accepted. By this step the meteorological services expressed their commitment to support the operational forecasting activities at the MAP Operation Centre.
An extraordinary IGP meeting is scheduled for 21 November 1997, which will be devoted to the discussion of items related to the new data access policy and the decision on the location of the MOC.
The MAP-NWS Board is the responsible body of the optional EUMETNET programme MAP-NWS (see Newsletter 6). Its constitutional meeting took place on Tuesday evening. MAP-NWS makes fundamental contributions to run the MAP Data Centre and the MAP Programme Office as it currently funds 2.5 positions. Thomas Gutermann and Philippe Bougeault have been elected chairman and vice-chairman, respectively.
Concerning new members, Spain has signed the MAP-NWS Contract and the UK is reconsidering to join the project. In addition to Slovenia and Slovakia, Hungary and Croatia applied also to become Associated Members of MAP-NWS.
The account of 1996 was approved and the budgets for 1997 and 1998 were discussed and accepted. To promote the effort of quality monitoring> of operational observations the Board agreed to fund half a student position from the budget of 1997. This work is also supported by forming a group of data quality experts of the national weather services.