1. Romanian National Meteorological Administration | Presenter: Oana Nicola Authors: Andrei Diamandi, Oana Nicola, Alina Ristea NWCSAF at NMA: Evolution of the processing chain and visualization of the products NWCSAF 2015 U SERS ’ W ORKSHOP ROMANIAN NATIONAL METEOROLOGICAL ADMINISTRATION

2.  2004 - 2006  2007 - 2010  2011 - 2014  2014 - onwards  What should we expect from the future?  Conclusions Outline NWCSAF 2015 U SERS ’ W ORKSHOP Romanian National Meteorological Administration

3.  SAFNWC /MSG v1.0 available to users in 2004  Pre-operational implementation: - SUN Ultra 60 (512 MB RAM, 1 CPU) - SUN Solaris 8 OS - F95 Compiler, C++, … - PGE’s exported from HDF to Tiff  NWP data: ECMWF - REGIONRomania - REGION_CENTRE_P500,2300 - REGION_SIZE700,1300 2004 – 2006 “Episode I” Romanian National Meteorological Administration  Operational (2006) SUN Ultra 60 (1 GB RAM, 1 CPU) SUN Solaris 8 OS F95 Compiler, C++, … PGE’s exported from HDF to Tiff NWCSAF 2015 U SERS ’ W ORKSHOP

4. 2004 – 2006 “Episode I” Processing Chain & Data Flow Romanian National Meteorological Administration

5. 2004 – 2006 “Episode I” Romanian National Meteorological Administration  SAFNWC/MSG products couldn’t be displayed by the forecaster’s visualization system (neX-REAP) since it couldn’t handle other color schemes than those built in…  The forecaster had to display the products on a separate computer/screen  No converter for BUFR/GRIB products to image  Expensive computer system (SUN Workstation)  Difficult to evaluate the products when one cannot overlay meteorological fields, etc.  However, forecasters quite enthusiast and willing to use the products NWCSAF 2015 U SERS ’ W ORKSHOP

6.  “New” (but more powerful h/w) – SUN Enterprise 3500 (2GB RAM, 4 CPU) – SAFNWC/MSG v2008 – Operational (2008)  First Linux machine – Fedora Core – SAFNWC/MSG v2009 – Operational (2010)  EUMETCAST hot standby system 2007 - 2010 Linux – “A New Hope” Romanian National Meteorological Administration NWCSAF 2015 U SERS ’ W ORKSHOP

7.  And finally Linux!  An easier installation of the NWCSAF/MSG  Cheaper hardware (Workstation/Desktop PC)  Separate production and development machines  NWCSAF/MSG accessible to more people  Backup machine now affordable  Free software! (compilers, OS)  And a lot of enthusiasm!  But… still not possible to visualize the products on the forecaster’s system (obviously not NWCSAF/MSG software’s fault) 2007 - 2010 Linux – “A New Hope” Romanian National Meteorological Administration NWCSAF 2015 U SERS ’ W ORKSHOP

8.  SAFNWC/MSG virtualization  Vmware ESXi 3.5  Fujitsu-Siemens TX200 S4 (2x Intel Xeon, 16 GB RAM…)  VM operational  Benefits: – Shorter downtimes –> in case of malfunction, just fire up a clone of the most recent functioning VM – Easy to install new versions of the SAFNWC/MSG -> use a pre-configured copy of your favorite OS as a VM – Handy for testing new configurations /experiment – Can run production and development VM’s on the same h/w – Easy backup/transfer  Drawbacks: VM proliferation -> rare, only if one easily get attached to objects 2011 - 2014 “Attack of the Clones” Romanian National Meteorological Administration NWCSAF 2015 U SERS ’ W ORKSHOP

9. 2011 - 2014 “Attack of the Clones” Romanian National Meteorological Administration The EUMETCast system & the SAFNWC VM farm NWCSAF 2015 U SERS ’ W ORKSHOP

10.  Product Visualization & Integration: – Still not possible to ingest the PGE’s in the nexREAP visualization system -> one more display on the forecaster’s desk, thin appetite for new products and even thinner for validation/evaluation – Hopes rise in 2014 with the announcement of a new forecaster visualization system for 2015 - 2016 – It has been decided however to give a try to the ADAGUC -> might not replace a full fledged visualization system but it could certainly come close; badly needed in order to help “reboot” forecasters interest in both evaluation/validation and operational use of NWCSAF products 2011 - 2014 “Attack of the Clones” Romanian National Meteorological Administration NWCSAF 2015 U SERS ’ W ORKSHOP

11.  The focus is foreseen to be less on the processing chains (the technology is quite mature) but more on the evaluation/validation/utilization/integration of the SAFNWC products  The evaluation/validation requires not only a proper visualization system but also toolboxes capable to easily create scenarios for automated validation using long product time series (short time series and case studies are useful but not enough) - > will become a “must” with MTG’s 5/2.5 min scan, 1(2) km resolution 2015 – onwards “The Force Awakens” Romanian National Meteorological Administration NWCSAF 2015 U SERS ’ W ORKSHOP

12.  More data (MTG: 1km/2km resolution, 16 channels) and more often (5/2.5 min scans) -> more products (old + new)  Higher demand for accurate/ real-time products  As a result, more CPU’s will be needed quite soon  However, if Moore’s law still holds, computing power should not be an issue  But what about Time? Will it be still possible for a human to use in nowcasting 2 (or 3?) dozens of new products coming every 2.5 minutes?  (Semi) automated nowcasting systems will certainly help, but complex visualization systems will still be needed in both operational meteorology and product evaluation/validation What should we expect from the future? Romanian National Meteorological Administration NWCSAF 2015 U SERS ’ W ORKSHOP

13.  10 years of SAFNWC have been challenging in many ways but exciting and rewarding  The next 10 look even more interesting  There are many things we could have done better and faster  We have been learning a lot and teach others some Conclusions Romanian National Meteorological Administration NWCSAF 2015 U SERS ’ W ORKSHOP

14. Thank you! Romanian National Meteorological Administration NWCSAF 2015 U SERS ’ W ORKSHOP