Trends in acquisition, use and management of observations Simon Gilbert Met Office Vision for WIGOS/Surface in 2040

Trends Changing climate leading to more frequent and severe weather events Urbanisation Resource stress, especially water User communities consolidate e.g. aviation Technological leaps - disrupters

How does an NMHS retain its relevance in 2040? The societal need for accurate, timely and appropriate weather and climate advice will only increase We must listen to and respond to the needs of our users in order to retain a role There are innovative and ambitious players waiting in the wings to take over if we cease to be relevant

Direction of travel for existing observations Phased array radar Cheaper radiosondes, self contained launchers -> ad hoc flights Telecomms increase in bandwidth and decrease in cost Smaller, cheaper sensors -> reduce engineering costs

Emerging technologies Opportunistic observations Mode S Mobile phone backhaul rainfall measurement Solar PV electricity generation monitoring Etc. etc Crowd sourced/citizen science Blended environmental information e.g. meteoswiss hail monitoring

Challenges High resolution NWP – hourly updating forecasts Inappropriate use of crowd sourced information Decreasing funding from Governments Greater number of systems -> must also retire networks!