Last week saw the first bilateral meeting between the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) since both organisations signed a Co-operation Agreement in early 2014.
The CMA delegation attending the 23–24th April discussion at ECMWF headquarters in Reading included:
- Ms JIAO Meiyan, Deputy Administrator CMA
- Mr GU Jianfeng, Director-General, Department of Forecasting and Networking CMA
- Ms WANG Jianjie, Deputy Director-General, National Meteorological Centre CMA
- Mr WU Tongwen, National Climate Centre CMA
- Mr YU Jun, Department of International Cooperation CMA
- Mr SUN Jian, Numerical Prediction Centre, National Meteorological Centre CMA
- Prof YANG Xiuqun, School of Atmospheric Sciences, Nanjing University
- Prof WANG Bin, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Whilst the first day was essentially about exchanging information on the latest developments at CMA and ECMWF, the second day focussed on potential collaborative projects. Agreement was reached to co-operate in 6 areas across numerical weather prediction (NWP), observations and computing. This collaboration will range from CMA specialists visiting ECMWF for periods up to a year, to exploring an enhanced exchange of ideas and data to keep each other informed.
The 6 collaborative projects that have been agreed are listed below. In some cases the work will start within the next month or so.
Project 1 - NWP Research and Development - 4DVAR and ensemble data assimilation
4DVAR and application of the background error covariances estimated by EDA system in 4DVAR.
Project 2 - NWP Research and Development - Global model error diagnosis and training
Research on model systematic error diagnosis and advanced training on numerical modelling.
Project 3 - NWP Research and Development - Studies on sub-seasonal to seasonal prediction
Extended-range predictability, especially of the East Asian monsoon, the MJO, and extreme temperature and precipitation events.
Project 4 - Satellite data - Pre-processing and assimilation of satellite data
Quality control and pre-processing methods of satellite data (FY-3), and its assimilation into ECMWF and CMA models.
Project 5 - Access to observations
Access to satellite and other sources of observations.
Project 6 - Technological exchanges on parallel computing and scalability
Parallel computing technology and optimization of NWP models, techniques for managing forecast production and supporting high-performance computing resources.
The discussion was closed by Professor Alan Thorpe, ECMWF Director-General, and Ms Meiyan Jiao, CMA Deputy Administrator, who both agreed that this first bilateral meeting had been very successful in launching the next stage in the co-operation between ECMWF and CMA. Ms Jiao stressed as a positive example of CMA co-operation with ECMWF the mutually beneficial scientific collaboration between the 2 organisations’ researchers. This meeting, which builds upon the already very good working relationship between CMA and ECMWF, also lays the foundations for the next 2 years of work. The next bilateral meeting, to take place within the next 2 years, will evaluate progress in these 6 areas.