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1. www.free-stockphotos.com EUMETNET - OPERA The European Weather Radar Network WMO-TECO: 27-29 November 2008 Iwan Holleman (KNMI), Program Manager Laurent Delobbe (RMI), and Anton Zgonc (EARS), working group chairs Iwan Holleman, Program Manager OPERAc/o The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI)

2. EUMETNET (RA-VI) Iwan Holleman, Program Manager OPERAc/o The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI)

3. OPERA Introduction • Operational Programme on Exchange of weather RAdar information • Weather radar networking programme of EUMETNET • Budget 130-146 k€/year • History: • COST 72, COST 73, and COST 75 (1979-1997) • COST 717 and COST 731 (1999-2010) • GORN (Liaison Group On Radar Networking) • OPERA-1 (1999-2003, K. Köck, TU-Graz) • OPERA-2 (2004-2006, A. Huuskonen, FMI) • OPERA-3 (2007-2011, I. Holleman, KNMI) Iwan Holleman, Program Manager OPERAc/o The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI)

4. OPERA’s Mission • Is to “harmonize and improve the operational exchange of weather radar information between National Meteorological Services” • “To support European applications of weather radar data through the establishment of a Data Hub function where harmonised products … are generated and managed.” • “To investigate and evaluate new radar technology and its relevance to operational requirements for present and future radar systems and bands.” • Note: • Oriented towards operations • Information = data + knowledge • Mainly between NMSs Iwan Holleman, Program Manager OPERAc/o The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI)

5. Members of OPERA (29) Iwan Holleman, Program Manager OPERAc/o The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI)

6. OPERA Network • Network details: • 175 Weather radars • Mostly C-band, some S-band • About 110 Doppler radars • Some 10 polarimetric radars • Polarimetric radars are becoming operational standard Iwan Holleman, Program Manager OPERAc/o The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI)

7. OPERA and WINPROF CWINDE • Weather radar wind profiles • Increase of availability, ~ 100 sites • Harmonization of GTS headers, format, and content • EUCOS upper-air network Iwan Holleman, Program Manager OPERAc/o The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI)

8. Organization • OPERA group meets twice a year • Typically 35-40 delegates from 20 countries • Plenary session and working groups • WG1 (Delobbe): Radar Technology and Algorithms • WG2 (Zgonc): Formats, Software, Data Hub Iwan Holleman, Program Manager OPERAc/o The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI)

9. Projects of WG1 • Working Group 1 is concerned with: • Weather Radars in Europe (Database on website from 15 December) • Application of quality information for radars and radar data • Promotion and evaluation of operational radar data use • Evaluation of new technologies (Polarimetric radars, X-band) • Site and frequency protection (Link with EUMETFREQ) • Harmonized production practices Iwan Holleman, Program Manager OPERAc/o The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI)

10. RLAN Interferences in Czech Rep. Iwan Holleman, Program Manager OPERAc/o The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI)

11. Projects of WG2 • Working Group 2 is concerned with: • Data exchange software development (BUFR and HDF5) • BUFR software maintenance (Software available on website) • BUFR table maintenance • Compositing software support • Pilot Data Hub operations (Developed during OPERA-2) • Operational Radar Data Center: specification, development, and operation Iwan Holleman, Program Manager OPERAc/o The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI)

12. Pilot Data Hub at Met Office Iwan Holleman, Program Manager OPERAc/o The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI)

13. Evaluation at ECMWF (P. Lopez) OPERA ECMWF OPERA minus ECMWF RMSD Iwan Holleman, Program Manager OPERAc/o The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI)

14. User-groups on European scale • Important user groups of continental-scale radar data for NMSs: • Core services forecasting and nowcasting, e.g. NMSs and EUMETSAT • NWP (Assimilation and verification), e.g. EUCOS, SRNWP (and consortia), ECMWF, COST 731 • Civil and military aviation, e.g. Eurocontrol • Hydrology and water management, e.g. JRC Ispra and COST 731 Iwan Holleman, Program Manager OPERAc/o The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI)

15. Three functional options • Definition of three options for operational radar data center: • Option 1: 2D Compositing of 2D single-site products • Option 2: 2D Compositing of 3D volume data • Option 3: 3D Compositing of 3D volume data • All options use single-site radar data • Input (volume) data also available for NWP • Functionality of Options is mapped on User Requirements Iwan Holleman, Program Manager OPERAc/o The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI)

16. Radar Data Center development • Timelines of development of data center: • June 07: Establishment of OPERA subgroup for writing specifications • April 08: Functional specifications approved by OPERA • June 08: Functional specifications approved by EUMETNET/PB-Obs • October 08: Functional specifications approved by EUMETNET/Council • November 08: Call for proposals within OPERA • May 09: Selection of Responsible Member and release of budget by EUMETNET/Council • June 09: Start of development of operational data center • Mid 10: Start operation of operational radar data center Iwan Holleman, Program Manager OPERAc/o The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI)

17. OPERA Website: www.knmi.nl/opera Liaison with WMO? Iwan Holleman, Program Manager OPERAc/o The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI)