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

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

3. Iwan Holleman, Program Manager OPERA c/o The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) 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)

4. Iwan Holleman, Program Manager OPERA c/o The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) 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

5. Iwan Holleman, Program Manager OPERA c/o The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) Members of OPERA (29) AustriaBelgiumBulgaria CroatiaCyprusCzech Republic DenmarkEstoniaFinland FranceGermanyGreece HungaryIcelandIreland ItalyLatviaLuxembourg NetherlandsNorwayPoland PortugalRomaniaSlovak Republic SloveniaSpainSweden SwitzerlandUnited Kingdom

6. Iwan Holleman, Program Manager OPERA c/o The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) 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

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

8. Iwan Holleman, Program Manager OPERA c/o The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) 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

9. Iwan Holleman, Program Manager OPERA c/o The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) 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

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

11. Iwan Holleman, Program Manager OPERA c/o The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) 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

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

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

14. Iwan Holleman, Program Manager OPERA c/o The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) 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

15. Iwan Holleman, Program Manager OPERA c/o The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) 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

16. Iwan Holleman, Program Manager OPERA c/o The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) 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

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