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EUMETNET OBSERVATIONS¶

EUMETNET is a grouping of 31 European National Meteorological Services that provides a framework to organise co-operative programmes between its Members in the various fields of basic meteorological activities. These activities include observing systems, data processing, basic forecasting products, research and development and training. EUMETNET's mission statement is.

The EUMETNET programme supports NAWDEX with the following extra-observations:

1. 1) Radiosondes from land stations within the European Network

1. 2) E-AMDAR observations

1. 3) E-ASAP-radiosoundings from commercial ships

All observation types perform operational (regular) observations. During the NAWDEX observation period the NAWDEX team can activate the observation types and ask for increased observation frequency. This manual explains the procedure to activate them.

The point of contact responsible for the coordination of all observations by the EUMETNET Observations Programme Management is

Sabine Hafner
EUMETNET Observations Programme Management
Operations and Projects Manager
Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD)
Phone:+49 (0) 69 8062 4491
email: sabine.hafner[at]dwd.de

The available funding covers 65 k€ (50k€ for additional radiosoundings and 15 k€ for AMDAR data. Depending on the price per sonde which varies from country to country we envisage 200-250 additional soundings. During the NAWDEX period we will regularly get a status report on our balance by Sabine Hafner.

All requests have to be sent from the email-address: sounding[at] nawdex.org to the respective points of contacts (see list)

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RADIOSONDES¶

Here [AS: include a link to the table provided by Sabine Hafner] you find the list of the available radiosonde stations that NAWDEX can access within the European Radiosonde network. Additionally the affiliation to the respective national weather service is given for each station. All regular observation intervals and the possible additional sounding release times are listed.

For NAWDEX we can choose a subset of the list of stations depending on our needs. Therefore requests have to be sent to the indicated points of contact at the national weather services. The requests are send with the Radiosonde-Email-Template [AS: add a link to the email template that is also shown at the end of this document] The list specifies advance warning deadlines for our requests. Generally we agreed on the following activation schedule (with some differences regarding activation for weekend and Monday):

• Announcement of the required additional sondes for specific stations 1-2 days in advance by the NAWDEX community

• announcement of a regular time interval for a defined time window

• go/no-go decision 12-24 h in advance

• for details see list [AS: add link]

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E-AMDAR¶

E-AMDAR (Aircraft Meteorological Data Relay) facilitates the fully automated collection and transmission of weather observations from commercial aircraft. The E-AMDAR programme is an integrated component of the WMO Global Observing System (GOS) of the World Weather Watch (WWW) Programme. The system is operated by EUMETNET Member NMHS in collaboration and cooperation with partner airlines. E-AMDAR provides ascent/descent profile measurements at airports.

The regular schedule is that every 3 hours a profile is produced from airports where E-AMDAR airplanes are starting and landing. Some airlines are already providing 1 hourly profiles, depending on the user needs. For NAWDEX it is planned that the NAWDEX organization tells E-AMDAR contact, from which area (1, 2 or 3) additional data are requested. E-AMDAR Technical coordinator makes the changes in the Flight Coordination Plan so that 1 hourly profiles are activated in the requested area.

The NAWDEX Team can activate different AMDAR regions that are defined as follows:

• Area 1 (Scandinavia): LLC (4°E / 54°N) ; URC (31°E / 72°N)

• Area 2 (Iberia): LLC (-11°E / 35°N); URC (4°E / 44°N)

• Area 3 (Adriatic): LLC (6°E / 37°N); URC (25°E / 48°N)

E-AMDAR observations can be activated with the E-AMDAR-Email-Template [AS: add a link to the email template that is also shown at the end of this document] by choosing one of the above mentioned areas. Lead times for the activation are:

• regular schedule on weekdays: 48h before, according to table

• Data for Monday has to be requested until Friday noon

• Request for Tuesday can be sent on Monday

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EASAP¶