The North Atlantic THORPEX Regional Campaign (TReC) is a new
The campaign is a European, U.S. and Canadian joint project.
The additional data will be used by the forecasting models and, it is
Christopher Velden - University of Wisconsin-CIMSS
international experiment which could change the way the weather is
observed and forecast. By targeting the observations in areas where
they are specifically needed THORPEX hopes to improve the accuracy of
forecasts - especially of weather systems which are particularly
difficult to track.
It will use the Numerical Weather Prediction models of the Met Office,
ECMWF, MeteoFrance and the U.S. NCEP (National Centre for
Environmental Prediction) to give guidance about 'sensitive areas'
where more specific observations are needed. (A sensitive area is
one where weather observations are expected to improve the forecast
of a weather system where this is particularly uncertain.) When there
is a consensus about a sensitive area the European, U.S. and
Canadian organizations will focus additional observational equipment on
the area - using satellites, civil and research aircraft, civil shipping,
radiosondes and drifting buoys. The European participation is being
organized by EUCOS (EUMETNET Composite Observing System)
which is under the responsibility of the Met Office. Other organizations
playing a vital role include the 18 European National Met Services that
are members of EUMETNET, NOAA, NASA, Environment Canada,
EUMETSAT, UCAR, NCAR, DLR and NRL.
hoped, improve, the forecasts. Once the data gathering phase of the
experiment ends (running from 13th October to 12th December, 2003) the
models will be run again, with the additional data removed, to see if
having the extra observations had a positive impact on the forecast.