Weather

One of the major challenges for a weather company is to develop tools that enable the customer to understand the forecast. These tools are developed by our Meteorological Research and Development department. The source of all applications is a continuous flow of data consisting of observations and numerical model data. All data is verified and quality checked before input into any application.

This data is used as the basis of our verification. In order to make a forecast adapted to local conditions (our MOS forecast), statistical post processing relates numerical data to observations. Physical post processing is needed to construct specialist products such as the road weather forecasts.

Downscaling using geodata or a high resolution model enables us to develop a location-specific product such as wind speed at hub height for a wind farm. Risk of precipitation is translated into risk of having more than a certain amount of precipitation during a certain time frame. Cloudiness, visibility, risk of showers or wintry precipitation: all are combined into single weather types which are easy to understand. Upper air data and surface pressure maps are automatically checked for weather boundaries called fronts. The list of applications is increasing every year as the flow of data becomes both faster and more complex.