The availability of SYNOP observations have started to decrease in our NWP models at Météo-France for the 12 UTC analyses on 03 November 2014. Currently the loss concerns surface data from the UK and from the Netherlands
Météo-France is planning to make a change to its operational suites by 05 November 2014 in order to be able to assimilate these missing data in BUFR format.
The maps presented below show the situation for the regional model AROME at 09 UTC and 12 UTC (03 November 2014). Missing data over Spain are due to delay reception and not to format conversion.
On the 6th November 2014 the Météo-France data assimilation systems have started to use the land surface observations from SYNOP reports in BUFR format. This has allowed us to recover observations that were lost on the 3rd of November 2014 (mostly UK, Ireland and Netherlands). As can be seen on the maps below (at 18 UTC 05/11/2014 : TAC surface data ; at 00 UTC 06/11/2014 : BUFR surface data) for the global model ARPEGE, the data coverage is rather different with BUFR reports than with TAC reports. After screening we gain about 10 % observations. The impact has been evaluated by performing research experimentsf ARPEGE 4D-Var with neutral impact over a one month period. We are not using yet radiosounding data in BUFR format.
