OBSERVATIONS – OPERA OPERA is the Radar Programme of EUMETNET The objectives of OPERA : The key achievements of OPERA: OPERA has been coordinating radar data exchange in Europe for 20 years, and its data centres have been operational for almost a decade. In the previous programme phase (2019-2023) the data centre (ODYSSEY) operated since 2011, was gradually replaced with three new production lines. The three production lines, CUMULUS/STRATUS, NIMBUS, and CIRRUS, are responsible for gathering the data, and producing European-wide radar products for EUMETNET members as well as third-party users.
During the previous OPERA phase (2019-2023), the data centre (ODYSSEY) was gradually replaced with three new production lines (CUMULUS/STRATUS CIRRUS, and NIMBUS).
Figure: The schematic structure of the new OPERA data production.
The three new production lines are:
• CUMULUS/STRATUS, a real-time data hub providing the incoming data back to members in approximately real-time for their own processing (e.g. regional composites or NWP assimilation) and to the other two production lines (CIRRUS and NIMBUS). The production line has been operational since Q2/2021.
• CIRRUS producing 5-minute instantaneous maximum reflectivity composite (dBZ) for current weather, severe weather alerts and aviation needs. It is replacing the ODYSSEY maximum reflectivity composite with improved spatial (now with 1 km gridding) and temporal resolution (from 15 – minutes to 5- minutes). The production has been operational in Q1/2024. Documentation regarding the CIRRUS maximum reflectivity product and its differences compared to the ODYSSEY maximum reflectivity product can be found here.
– OPERA_Max Reflectivity_Product Sheet_Ed-2.0.pdf
– OPERA5_Report_Cirrus-vs-Odyssey_Ed-2.0.pdf
• NIMBUS producing centrally the quality-controlled products; instantaneous rain rate (mm/h) and 1 – hour accumulation (mm) composites, and wind profiles (TBD Q4/2024), and additionally the quality-controlled volume data for NWP assimilation. It is replacing the ODYSSEY production for the above-mentioned products. The NIMBUS production has been operational in Q2/2024. Documentation regarding the NIMBUS composites and their differences compared to the corresponding ODYSSEY can be found here:
– NIMBUS_datasheet_composites_1.0_13062024.pdf
– NIMBUS_composite_vs_ODYSSEY_1.0_19062024.pdf
OPERA support can be reached through email to support.opera@emetnet.com. Responses from the service desk are provided on a best-effort basis.
Access to data
The members of OPERA and EUMETNET may use the composites for their official duties without a separate license. The Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) modelers obtain the quality-controlled volume data directly from NIMBUS production line.
The OPERA products are also available under license to 3rd parties:
· For national weather services not participating in OPERA which want to use the products to support their public weather service, contact info@emetnet.com
· For a research and education licence, contact info@emetnet.com.
· For a license to exploit the products commercially, contact one of the EUMETNET members contact points(https://www.ecomet.eu/contact/members) or send a mail eumetdaps_secretariat@emetnet.com.
WG AVIMET: The Working Group for Aviation Objectives Aviation, consisting of a wide spectrum of aeronautical stakeholders, is a high priority customer group for most EUMETNET Members. Via co-operation, EUMETNET Members strive to improve the value and efficiency of aeronautical meteorological services to ensure performance benefits for the aviation industry as well as to reduce the negative impact of adverse weather conditions on the daily operations. AVIMET is a Working Group of EUMETNET that was created to address issues of common interest within the aeronautical meteorological (MET) domain, especially in relation to the ongoing development of the political, technical and regulatory landscape under a Single European Sky (SES). In addition to this, the WG AVIMET aims to facilitate the exchange of information between members on aviation meteorological issues whilst developing common position statements of EUMETNET on aviation-related issues. Focus Areas AVIMET has identified three main focus areas: Membership & Organisation Membership is open to all EUMETNET Members who may nominate one representative to the Working Group. In general, the representative should belong to an authorized and certified MET Service Provider which may be either the EUMETNET Member itself or another agency in that country. On 1st of January 2017 AVIMET has 33 members. The Working Group tasks are coordinated by an elected WG Chairperson whose main roles are to: The AVIMET Chair is assisted by 2 elected Vice-Chairs.
CLIMATE PROGRAMME Climate services is currently a rapidly growing area due to different initiatives and additional players in the European Framework. Therefore it is necessary that European NMHSs follow up on the associated innovations and developments and intensify their interaction between themselves as well as with European organisations and stakeholders. Objectives To increase the visibility of EUMETNET as a common doorstep to the NHMSs The key priorities The Programme milestones A few important milestones of this programme are: The organisation The current phase of the Programme started in January 2024 and will last until the end of 2028. The Activity is managed by a consortium of GeoSphere (Austria, Coordinating Member, Barbara Chimani) and HungaroMet (Hungary, Monika Lakatos). Contact: Barbara.Chimani@geosphere.at Further information This PowerPoint presentation outlines a few of the tasks and capabilities concerning climate activities carried out by the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services. Workshops and Conferences
Other Useful Information
PEP725 MODULE “Phenology – the timing of seasonal activities of animals and plants – is perhaps the simplest process in which to track changes in the ecology of species in response to climate change” (IPCC 2007). At the same time different species often respond differently to changing conditions, provoking the question about effects of changed synchrony in ecological interactions. In most European countries, phenological observations have been carried out routinely for more than 50 years by different governmental and non-governmental organisations following different observation guidelines. Therefore, data is stored at different places in different formats. This has been hampering large-scale studies as one has to address many network operators to get access to the data before one could start to bring them in a uniform style. The overall objective of the Pan-European Phenological Database is a European research infrastructure to promote and facilitate phenological research. Objective 1 Its main objective is to build up and maintain a European-wide phenological database with an open, unrestricted data access for science, research and education. So far, 27 European meteorological services and 7 partners from different phenological network operators have joined PEP725. Objective 2 Another aim is the display of near-realtime phenological observations from a few countries with real-time monitoring in order to visualise the spring green wave moving through Europe. Objective 3 Draw the attention of the climate impact community to the PEP725 data set and encourage scientific work based on it. The tasks · Regular maintenance and updates of the phenological database (PEP725) with data from various European countries. · Regular maintenance of the PEP725 webpage and delivering data for the EUMETNET webpage – widget. The number of data downloads from the PEP725 web pages has been increasing steadily since its launch in 2011: from approximately 1600 in 2011 to 3816 in 2014 and more than more than 5000 in 2015, improvement of the download-facility · Develop methods and software to do data quality checks · Organization of an annual meeting · Organization of an annual symposium with invited speakers · Develop a more sophisticated web-interface · Develop the download tool (to minimize the tailored data supply) · Develop a notification service: partners to be informed automatically (email) when records of their networks are requested · Raise the visibility of PEP725 (media, presentations, paper) · Monitor data downloads and publications based on the PEP725 data set The requirements Financial requirements for the operational activities and development of the above mentioned features amount to about 6 person months a year. An off the shelf PC fulfills the hardware requirements to run the data base, host the PEP725 home page and do the software developments. The organisation The ZAMG is the only organization directly involved in maintaining and developing the PEP725 data base. More information