PRODUCTION TOOL FOR FRENCH OVERSEAS TERRITORIES Brigitte Bénech, Météo-France, Toulouse, France and Pascal Venzac

Meteo-Factory: a modular system designed to deliver automatically to end-users the meteorological products and services they need Overview 1. A system  where the forecaster can fully focus on the heart of his expertise: weather forecasting.  where the production is designed to fit the customers’ requirements without extra load for the forecasting 2. A web-based and modular tool composed of three main modules  Weather data integration  Integrated production system  Monitoring and dissemination system.

A web-based and modular tool composed of three main modules  Weather data integration (green)  Integrated production system(yellow)  Monitoring and dissemination (blue) Meteo-Factory is linked to Synergie for data access and graphical expertise production. Synergie is a French software supporting forecaster expertise and batch production

Weather data integration  The weather data are directly extracted from the Synergie server (models data, satellite pictures…) or from the expertise of the forecasters.  The forecasting module includes : MetEditor: creation or update of a weather forecast. AwareMet: dealing with severe events and creating the awareness data Reports: editing texts in separate blocks that will also be stored in the data base All outputs from these three expertise modules (MetEditor, AwareMet and Reports) are sent to the production data base, and will be used to create the final products. Forecaster has first to select the right model to initialize the data base. He also can recall the previous forecast.Then, he has to deal with a board to display the data.

Weather data integration MetEditor Parameters Time range navigation You can select time stamped values by 2 different navigation modes: >Parameters navigation >Time range navigation No more than 4 values at the same time Forecast for the: Significant weather Rain amount over 6 hours Assign one pictogram to an area Or to all the country Cloudiness

Weather data integration The area number 1 is an object. All locations within this area will have the same significant weather: overcast and rainy 1 Weather parameters can also be initialized through objects which have previously been drawn by the forecasters on Synergie work stations

Weather data integration AwareMet: dealing with severe events and creating the awareness data Awareness chart for New Caledonia To select the event type To select and assign a pictogram To select the color level To write a report

Weather data integration Reports To write down the forecasts For today For tomorrow A report is composed of as many blocks as necessary for the end-users production. Each block has a title (Wind, Swell, General situation, Marine forecast…) The name of the report and this title will be used in the templates of the products as a link to the data base and to the text written by the forecaster

Integrated production system Some examples of available products

Click right on the image In the final product, the image will be replaced by the actual icon of the parameter, on the area and at the time range selected in Object properties parameter area Time-range Integrated production system Template of a Met gram A template defines which data will be displayed in the product. It defines also the format of data and the layout of the product. It is possible to modify templates or to create one’s own templates with a Vector Graphics Editor, SVG Compliant and open source.

Monitoring and dissemination The purpose of the monitoring function is to:  check the products generations and publications on the production server  check the integration of Synergie products into the production server  check the input and output of products through the dissemination server Production monitoring board, concerning the production of reports. The colour of the lines is linked to the production time and deadline

Monitoring and dissemination The customer dissemination management facility allows the administrator to manage the list of customers, broadcast groups and broadcast parameters ( , ftp and/or fax)

Conclusions  Meteo-Factory has been installed in French overseas territories in 2008 and new methods of production are still being defined and organised.  The production tasks are being re organised to take advantage of this new tool.  An upgrade is planned in 2009 to add new functionalities: automatic alert messages based on meteorological thresholds, SMS dissemination, and particularly an attractive web production for dynamic websites  In 2010 we should also improve the forecasting module,so as to extent the ability of initialization with “objects”