The US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and partners have joined together to launch approximately 100 new Argo floats across the Atlantic Ocean to collect data that supports ocean, weather and climate research and prediction. NOAA says the floats will bolster the international Argo program, which maintains a global array of about 3,800 floats that measure the pressure, temperature and salinity of the upper 2,000m (1.2 miles) of the ocean.

The French sailing vessel Iris arrived in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, in mid-December after deploying an initial batch of 17 Argo floats across the Atlantic. While there, the S/V Iris crew picked up the remaining floats for the second leg of the voyage in the South Atlantic, toward the island of St.

Continue reading NOAA and partners to launch 100 new Argo observation floats at Meteorological Technology International.

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and its partners have released a second application based on the Unified Forecasting System (UFS) framework.

The agency says the new code will enable users to make improvements that focus on the short-range weather applications, critical for life-saving weather and water forecasts in the USA during extreme events such as tornadoes, blizzards, floods and hurricanes. The short-range weather application predicts atmospheric behavior on a timescale from less than an hour to several days.

The release, available through GitHub, is part of an ongoing effort by NOAA to transition to an open, community development paradigm and accelerate the advancement of environmental prediction models.

Continue reading Short-range weather modeling application released to forecasting community at Meteorological Technology International.

New research has been conducted to investigate humans’ impact on freshwater resources, involving a global accounting of fluctuating water levels in Earth’s lakes and reservoirs – including ones previously too small to measure from space. The research, published in the journal Nature, relied on NASA’s Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite 2 (ICESat-2).

ICESat-2 sends 10,000 laser light pulses every second down to Earth. When reflected back to the satellite, the pulses deliver high-precision surface height measurements every 28in (70cm) along the satellite’s orbit. With these trillions of datapoints, scientists can distinguish more features of Earth’s surface, like small lakes and ponds, and track them over time.

Continue reading NASA scientists complete first global survey of freshwater fluctuation at Meteorological Technology International.

Retrospective analysis of satellite observations by scientists at the University of Reading have revealed the first evidence of a space hurricane in Earth’s upper atmosphere, confirming the existence of such events and shedding new light on the relationship between planets and space.

The unprecedented observations, made by satellites in August 2014, were uncovered during retrospective analysis by Reading researchers as part of a team led by Shandong University in China. They confirmed the hurricane and offered clues about its formation.

This analysis has enabled the creation of a 3D image of the 1,000km-wide swirling mass of plasma several hundred kilometers above the North Pole, raining electrons instead of water, and in many ways resembling the hurricanes we are familiar with in the Earth’s lower atmosphere.

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According to new research conducted by the US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the Paris Sciences and Letters University, warming temperatures will potentially alter the climate in Alaska so profoundly later this century that the number of thunderstorms will triple, increasing the risks of widespread flash flooding, landslides and lightning-induced wildfires.

The research – published in two papers in Climate Dynamics – suggests that the sea ice around Alaska could largely give way to open water in the warmer months, creating an ample source of moisture for the atmosphere. This moisture, combined with warmer air that holds more water vapor, would turbocharge summertime storms over Alaska by the end of the century in a high greenhouse gas emissions scenario.

Continue reading Climate change could triple the number of thunderstorms in Alaska at Meteorological Technology International.

IT and business consulting services company CGI says it has been awarded a contract by the European Space Agency (ESA) to develop a new wildfire mapping service that combines recent advances in Earth observation (EO), artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing to improve the mapping and monitoring of the impact of wildfires.

CGI and its project partner, the University of Leicester, UK, are working with nationally mandated user organizations from Australia (Geoscience Australia) and France (ONF France) to implement and demonstrate EO services based on their requirements for improved wildfire risk management. The consortium will evaluate a variety of AI algorithms that could help meet these requirements.

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According to a new study, titled Widespread increase in dynamic imbalance in the Getz region of Antarctica from 1994 to 2018, published in the journal Nature Communications, glaciers in West Antarctica are moving more quickly from land into the ocean, contributing to rising global sea levels. A 25-year record of satellite observations was used to show widespread increases in ice speed across the Getz sector for the first time, with some ice accelerating into the ocean by nearly 50%.

The study reports that 14 glaciers in the Getz region are thinning and flowing more quickly.

Continue reading Satellite data informs study showing rapid movement of Antarctic glaciers at Meteorological Technology International.

US-based weather technology company, ClimaCell, is to build its own range of proprietary weather satellites to improve radar forecasting for areas that currently have low or no coverage. According to the company, five billion people still live in areas with no weather radar coverage, severely limiting their access to accurate weather forecasting.

Deploying ground-based radars to improve the situation is not a practical option; therefore, the company says it is turning to satellites while noting that many weather satellites are still limited in their ability to penetrate cloud cover. For example, NASA has been developing space-based radar sats (its TRMM and GPM missions), but these are expensive and only provide revisit times of around three days to specific areas.

Continue reading ClimaCell to launch own radar satellite constellation at Meteorological Technology International.

Scientists at the UK’s University of Reading are to lead a series of masterclasses to help weather experts get up to speed with the latest weather and climate science.

Run jointly by the Royal Meteorological Society and the University of Reading, the Meteorological Masterclasses aim to provide top-level training for weather and climate professionals working for national weather services or elsewhere in the profession.

A previous series, held in September 2020, was attended by more than 500 weather and climate professionals worldwide, with attendees saying the series was a must for keeping up to date.

Each masterclass consists of a presentation followed by the opportunity for questions and discussion with the speaker.

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High-performance computing (HPC) supplier Atos has been selected by the Spanish State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) to supply and install new computing and storage technology. Based on Atos’s BullSequana supercomputing architecture, the new system will provide almost 10 times more computing capacity than the current one, which was installed in 2014.

The updated computing cluster will, says AEMET, reinforce and expand its current capabilities to boost research in areas such as weather forecasting, climate change and wave prediction, and support its collaboration with international organizations.

Additionally, it will help the organization meet new strategic, technological and service provision challenges, such as preparing, supplying and disseminating meteorological information and forecasts, in its 2019-21 Action Plan.

Continue reading Spanish Meteorological Agency invests in new Atos supercomputer at Meteorological Technology International.