This list describes the status of some feedback and requests put forward by users during the User Voice Corner feedback session at the ECMWF UEF meeting held in June 2018. Items are included here mainly to provide some useful clarification and/or an update where significant progress has already been made. Many more items are being worked on or considered for future action. References are made below to cycle 46r1; this is the new IFS model version that should go live in summer 2019.
- Re-analyses and Re-forecasts - big demand
The ERA5 re-analysis data, from 1978 until 2019, went live in January 2019. Resolution is 31km compared to 80km for ERA-Interim. Late in 2019 ERA5 re-analysis data from 1950-1978 will also be released. Re-forecasts, which currently use ERA-Interim analyses as the basis for their initialisation, will start using ERA5 analyses for this purpose with cycle 46r1.
- Can 1 year of re-forecasts be made available immediately with each new cycle ?
This is technically not possible at present with current supercomputer resources. It is also important to stress that model changes between cycles are not usually that great, and so model characteristics do not commonly change that much. This means that old re-forecasts are not as redundant as they might appear.
- Provide 06Z and 18Z BC forecast runs, and 1-hourly IFS data where available
ECMWF tabled a motion to council in late June 2018. seeking approval for these to be disseminated for a fee. This motion was passed and the data was first made available in September 2018.
- Can the IFS model issue issue of snow on the ground not melting quickly enough be fixed ?
This is an active area of research; a new 5 layer snow scheme, which has delivered, amongst other things, interesting impacts over and downwind of the Himalayas, is undergoing further testing.
- Dissatisfaction in some quarters with the ECMWF method of computing CAPE
In response to this being repeatedly voiced, ECMWF has set up a short collaborative project with ESSL (the European Severe Storms Laboratory) to investigate computation of CAPE and other ECMWF convective indices. This is work in progress, but some noteworthy changes are expected to be implemented in cycle 46r1.
- Why are winds over mountains underestimated ?
The Verification team have been tasked with investigating and documenting this issue.
- Can ECMWF improve its visibility diagnostic ?
Dynamic aerosol-moisture interaction is an important missing link. Parallel work on the atmospheric composition version of the IFS (C-IFS) should in the long term (years) help address this issue. In the meantime we continue to investigate cases and document findings.
- Winds wanted at more near-surface levels, for wind energy applications
The utility of providing data for other levels, in addition to the 100m level data already disseminated, has been studied; the conclusion was that "200m winds" were sufficiently different to justify inclusion, so these will be made available for HRES and ENS with cycle 46r1 (u,v,speed). 50m winds provided little extra information, partly because of lack of ENS levels near the surface, and so will not be added.
- More aviation-related indices wanted
ECMWF has been prototyping turbulence and icing diagnostics, but these will not be introduced in 2019.
- Can ECMWF make ecCharts refresh faster?
This long-standing problem is being addressed via new cloud and map-drawing technologies (one component is similar to the tiles used by google maps). The first update for users is expected late in 2019.
- Request for variables on the "PV=1.5" level
Will be added in cycle 46r1: variables will mirror those already available for the PV=2 level.
- Users want more fire and drought-related products
Work on fire products continues as part of a substantial EU-funded fire forecasting initiative, based at ECMWF. Resource limitations preclude work on drought-related products at the current time.
- Better MARS documentation wanted
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- Faster MARS access wanted
ECMWF has increased capacity with new disk technology. Some data, for example re-analyses, can be accessed more quickly via another route - the CDS (Climate Data Store). Users are encouraged to use this channel wherever possible.