The MOC Forecast Office and its role within the MAP SOP


It has been demonstrated in other documentation that no other meteorological experiment in the Alps has 
been prepared as intensively as MAP, and the international forecasters' working group which was founded 
approximately four years ago considerably contributed to these preparations.
During the field phase of MAP (Special Observation Period) which begins tomorrow we need to 
predict the weather as precisely  as possible for all MAP participants, especially for the aircraft and the field 
groups. We have to support the mission planning and the decision making by covering all forecast ranges 
from the medium range (3 - 6 days ahead) to nowcasting (0 - 6 hours). MAP’s success  strongly depends 
on the weather in the Alps during the field phase. There are field groups which have to be informed at least 
48 hours before the expected weather event since many of the instrument platforms require such  a lead time. 
Nowcasting and real-time guidance is required by the radar teams and the aircraft, the latter have to be sent 
to those regions where the strongest foehn wind or precipitation is expected. 
For this difficult task a maximum of regional meteorological experience is desirable, and 
consequently  the MAP Forecast Office in Innsbruck draws on experienced meteorologists from all parts of 
the Alps: from France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Slovenia and Croatia, additionally from 
Canada and the United States - a unique opportunity for cooperation. Synoptic meteorological experience 
still cannot be replaced by computers and decisions cannot be made automatically. Let me give an example: 
I would feel quite uneasy if I had to predict the weather for the Lago Maggiore region in detail, and my 
colleagues in Locarno or Milan will be glad about my assistance for a foehn prediction in the Wipptal.
In order to optimise our working conditions a special forecast office has been installed with the 
support of the austrian meteorological services, Austro Control and Central Institute for 
Meteorology and Geodynamics. In this office all data and forecast tools of these institutions are 
available, supplemented by  data sets and forecast charts especially created for MAP. It may be  no 
exaggeration to say: For the next 10 weeks Innsbruck has the best equipped forecast office of the 
world. 
Obviously, meteorologists from different countries normally work in different languages with 
various tools and methods. Thus the forecasters' working group elaborated a large set of common forecast 
tools and forecast criteria.
For the last two years we have been testing the methods by issuing so-called "MAP alerts" in case of MAP 
relevant weather phenomena.
During the next 10 weeks the work of this group will be very important, since the success of MAP 
depends strongly on the quality of the forecasts. But there also will be wrong predictions which will 
demonstrate the importance of a better understanding of the weather through MAP.