Minutes of the ALADIN evening meeting, Bratislava, 13rd of October 1999

The EWGLAM/SRNWP meetings are not only the opportunity to attend good scientific presentations and informal reception or to visit forecast center, castle, downtown and restaurants ... an evening is usually dedicated to an ALADIN meeting. This time is was on Wednesday evening, just after the end of the EWGLAM session (and before another ALADIN meeting ... at the restaurant).

20 people from 9 ALADIN countries were present (nobody from Bulgaria, Morocco, Portugal, Romania and Moldavia could attend). Main discussions were about :

• The scientific program for next year :

A scientific program for next year will be presented to the next Assembly of Partners (the preliminary document is available on our public ftp).

Among the subjects for 2000, the orphan ones were identified and some of them were attributed to volunteers during this meeting. Others are still free.

• The ALADIN school on high resolution modelling :

This school will be mostly theoretical and will not be organized for the formation of newcomers. Of course, people attending to this school should have then the opportunity to go on working on ALADIN after the school (some of the people trained during the last general purpose training exercise did not work on ALADIN after the school for many many months or years...). Commitments on this subject will be asked to the Directors for the Assembly.

• Common ALADIN verification :

Météo-France have funding for initiating this work on verification with a 2 month stay in Toulouse in 2000. A call for volunteer is hereby announced.

• Maintenance :

The situation is critical with a participation less and less important from some countries, whereas Météo-France's effort is increasing every year. Some promises of some participations were made; hopefully they will be kept ...

The next phasing (March 2000) will be rather a small one with mainly ODB and some cleaning of the code. A more important phasing will begin in October after the EWGLAM meeting.

• Assembly of Partners

A first draft of the agenda of the Assembly was prepared. Since then, it has been completed and proposed (and approved) to/by the participants (see above).

• Next EWGLAM meeting in Toulouse

They 2000 meeting will be in Toulouse and an effort will be made to have at least one participant of each ALADIN countries. The dates of the stays in Toulouse will be chosen in order to offer the opportunity of attending this meeting to the maximum of people (some stays could end just before the meeting and others, such as phasing stays, could begin just after the meeting). This will be a huge organization effort at the same time when the EWGLAM meeting should be prepared ...

The important question of which excursion will be organized during the next meeting was touched during a contradictory debate ... The subject is still open and suggestions are welcome.

Minutes of the ALADIN evening meeting, Toulouse, 10th of October 2000

An informal meeting took place after the second day of the 22^nd EWGLAM & 7^th SRNWP joint meeting (9-13 Oct 2000, Toulouse). ALADINers gathered together to debate some technical (T) and scientific (S) issues; a summary of the discussions in their chronological order is given hereafter.

T1: Newsletter

• Do we still need to produce the Newsletter on a hardcopy?

As it takes about one month to print the Newsletter, the hardcopies will be replaced by html and postscript files already available from the web site (all the versions are available) and the ftp site (only latest version available), and by a few CD-ROMs (postscript and html version), which will be distributed to the National Meteorological Services.

• Frequency

Patricia Pottier wants to keep the 6-month production frequency, which is the most relevant rhythm for also producing documentations for the Assembly and reports for ALATNET.

• Scientific content

Some people complained at the last ALADIN workshop about the diffusion of scientific results. This could be alleviated if most NMS provide a more detailed description of deported scientific work (as Romania, Hungary, Lace and France already do).

T2: "Trombinoscope"

A rogues' gallery will be produced for the web site; all the ALADINers will have their numerical photo taken by Jean-Daniel Gril, during the week for those who leave at the end of the meeting, later for the other ones. Numerical and paper (scanned then returned) photos can also be sent to him.

T3: Statistics of participation: a new system

With the increasing complexity for processing the statistics of participation due to new contributions in the framework of ALATNET, delays in sending the contributions now differ from one country/network to another one, so that the current system is not adapted any longer. Anyway the previous long delay did not avoid problems. A new system is now suggested.

• Automatic system

An interactive system on the web site will enable the contributor to introduce his report in an homogeneous form and to print it for keeping a trace of it. When the system has performed a general validation of the input (units, etc.), the informations are sent to feed the database with a quick manual further checking / verification in Toulouse. This system should be ready in one month's time.

• Report form

Two formats are conceivable: the report can be done either with respect to the location, i.e. where the activity took place, or with respect to the team. Up to now, reports have been done according to the location, but this solution has not been unanimously approved. The solution that is now adopted is a double-level solution: the contributor will be proposed two forms, in the first one the report will be done with respect to location (compulsory), in the second one the report will be done with respect to team/NMS (as an option for double-checking).

• A link towards scientifically oriented reports for the Newsletter

More personalized reports for the Newsletter are expected: each person should produce a scientifically oriented report, but when? The new system will enable to control the progress of the tasks, the milestones in the works. As a trial, Jean-François Geleyn will flag items to get reports when it seems to be time: if a given topic appears x times, or when an important work has come out, or once a year, etc. This somewhat arbitrary decision is an experimental solution for one year.

T4: Technical Notes

A few ALADIN Technical Notes have been produced in the past, but this project was given up because reviewers were too easily taken for correctors. There is a common wish to start theses Technical Notes again. An editorial team will fix norms, a policy similar to the ECMWF Technical Memorandum policy could be adopted, i.e. before submitting a paper to the open literature it could be first published internally as an ALADIN Technical Note.

T5: MAE 10-year report

Five MAE 10-year reports (milestones of participation, contributions, etc.) have already been sent to Dominique Giard, five are missing. The missing ones should be sent as quickly as possible (one or two months) to Dominique as she needs to homogenize the reports. Note that it is not worthwhile including the informations about the statistics of participation as Dominique already has the figures. As a reminder, the next 10-year funding will be done on 1st March 2001.

T6: Questionnaire about the ALADIN web page

For improving the web site remarks are needed to know the general impression, identify what is missing, whether a documentation is complete or half finished, etc. Comment should be sent to Ryad El Khatib.

S1: Lecture course in 2001 / Data assimilation

Data assimilation should be the focus of the lecture course to be held next spring in the surroundings of Toulouse. After debating the subject it appeared that one week on data assimilation would not be sufficient. Spread over a two-week period, the lecture course would deal with two main topics: general issues of data assimilation during the first week and tools (tangent linear and adjoint techniques, etc.) for data assimilation during the second week. This organization will depend on the number of candidates.

As a general impression, the whole ALADIN community is weak when involvement in the use of observations is required. A continuation of the training course is suggested to kick off the use of observations specific to ALADIN. But there should be a familiarization of the candidates to this topic beforehand. A small workshop could be organized next Autumn.

S2: Verification strategy for high-resolution modelling

The use of conventional verification tools does not seem to be appropriate for high resolution modelling. Satellite data are sparingly used, only for case studies and as a subjective verification, but not for operational purposes. If satellite data were assimilated, they would constitute a by-product for verification. A key issue for high resolution modelling verification is to make objective a subjective verification (pattern recognition for example), but it will require a few years of work. A workshop on verification targeted to extreme weather is to be held in Prague, 14-18 May 2001. The next SRNWP workshop on verification methods is scheduled in April 2001 in DeBilt, KNMI, The Netherlands.

Automatic verification seems to be more and more irrelevant to the scales we are working on. Currently, if objective verification does not clearly show any improvement, the project is usually abandoned, whereas at fine scale we should take common sense to make a decision. According to Jean-François Geleyn, when testing modifications in high resolution modelling the tendency should rather be: (1) work on case studies; (2) evaluate the potential for future developments; (3) run conventional scores. Too many developments are not put to an end, i.e. not put in a library, because of the lack of verification tools being used as an excuse. Progress has to be done in that respect.

Finally it has been pointed out that 2D/1D model versions are often a good environment for testing, but it depends on the problem you are dealing with.

S3: Priority topics for the next years

This topic was on the agenda, but was not debated for lack of time.

Minutes of the ALADIN evening meeting, Cracow, 11th of October 2001

An ALADIN informal meeting took place in Cracow besides the EWGLAM/SRNWP meetings. 16 ALADINers attended this meeting. Main topics discussed are :

Information about "Projet Meso" at Météo-France

The aim of this project, managed independantly from ARPEGE/ALADIN and GMAP, is to define the main features of the next generation meso-scale NWP model at Météo-France. Since this have short-term (significant code changes, some more modularisation, ...) and long-term implications for ALADIN, partners cannot just only wait.

ALADIN models verification

Up to now only two ALADIN countries produce monthly scores according to the EWGLAM rules. The e-mail list for verification (verifala++at++meteo.fr) has to be updated and ... used for the exchange of the scores. Guidelines for computation of these scores will be sent to each correspondent in this list. Dijana Klaric will be the LACE contact point. She is currently studying how to update the list of stations, which is not covering Slovenia neither Croatia. Patricia Pottier is proposed as the new ALADIN coordinator for verification. The present representatives agree, it will be submitted to an official vote at the next Assembly of Partners.

Statistics of ALADIN participation

Despite the new rules accepted with the signature of the new MoU, very few countries respect deadline and guidelines for the accounting of the ALADIN participation at home. The http interface will be available until November 4, 2001 to register the participation for the 3rd quarter of 2001. After this deadline, all contributions will be sent to the correspondents for checking/verification/... No repeated call for contributions will be sent and no contribution before this deadline means 0 m.m for this quarter. If it is known that a contact point cannot register before the deadline, as it is the case for Slovakia this quarter, someone should at least tell it to Patricia !

Newsletters

The ALADIN newsletter 20 / ALATNET newsletter 3 will be printed very soon. As usual, it has been a huge work to collect the contributions and to join them for a whole document. Please send text in .txt, .rtf or .html formats and pictures in .gif and .ps and do not wait the 5th call to give your contribution !... The proceedings of the 10th ALADIN workshop are also ready and will be sent simultan

Minutes of the ALADIN evening meeting, Cracow, 11th of October 2001

Documentation

Using ALATNET funding, Hungary will print ALATNET documentation. Please send to Andras the list of available documents first, then "the ready-to-print" .ps files.

Stays in Toulouse for end of 2001 and 2002

MAE funding for 2001 are still not available. Thus, some stays were delayed or organized on other funding. Taking into account the very late availability of this MAE 2001 funding, we will feel free to use it until summer 2002. Anyway, it will be our last MAE funding (the MAE usually gives these sorts of funding for beginning project and we celebrated this year the ALADIN 10 years anniversary !...).

Next ALATNET Seminar

It will take place on May 27-31 in Slovenia (near the Croatian border). An announcement will be sent to the ALADIN Partners with guidelines for the topics (Numerical Methods) ; commitments for the attendance to this seminar will be asked.

ALADIN Workshops

Considering the low attendance during the workshops on "Recent and planned operational exploitation of ALADIN model", it is proposed to have only one ALADIN workshop a year : the workshop on "Scientific developments" will be extended with a special session for exchanges with and between the forecasters/users. If the Assembly of Partners agrees, this will start in 2002 with a 3-4 days ALADIN workshop in Zagreb, just after the ALATNET Seminar (3-6 June 2002).

Maintenance

Some questions were asked about the libraries. Please find above Claude's answer :

AL15 is declared in Toulouse since June 2001 and contains all the improvements of the several cycora suites + fullpos new fields and also some drastic code modifications (transform package, merged scan2m). At the date of October, 18th, it is validated for e001 / fullpos / e501/401/801 hydrostatic and nhs fullpos and e001. Remaining problems with screening/3dvar/canari (validation is still underway), new approach for screening/3dvar obs handling with odb (under development), e501/401 nhs (bugged), e601 (bugged).

An export version is planned for end of october, based on AL15.op2 Toulouse version. Some significant namelist changes are also needed in order to run the latest configuration of the physics contained in the _op2 branch (see mails by jean-francois geleyn, and jean-daniel gril).

Next ALADIN research plan

The current research plan ends at the end of 2001 and a new one has to be discussed at the Next Assembly of Partners. The proposal for the new research plan has to be sent to the Directors (deadline mid-December). It has been decided :

• every team should read BEFORE THE END OF OCTOBER the current ALADIN research plan (1999-2001) available on the ALADIN website, the ALATNET joint programme of work and the ALATNET 1st progress report (both documents on ALATNET website page) and the reports from the Toulouse Workshop (on ALADIN website).
• Every team should send by e-mail, before mid-November, its contribution to the new ALADIN research plan (proposals, remarks, noticed problems, ...)
• A small meeting will take place in Toulouse to study all these documents and prepare the plan to be sent to the Directors for validation during the Assembly. All ALATNET countries must be represented to this meeting as they are responsible for the progress of some research topics till 2004. Representatives from at least 2 or 3 other Partners should also attens this meeting, since everyone should feel involved. Some participants could be invited by Météo-France (in case they have no other funding available) BUT, in that case, we must prepare all papers NOW (i.e. before Thursday), including plane tickets, ....

New climate files

Due to other urgent tasks, the developments on e923 by Dominique have been delayed but are still planned !... A special effort will be done in November on that topic but it would be better to have another specialist of that topic. Volunteers welcome ...

Minutes of several ALADIN evening meetings, Oslo, 4 - 7 October 2004

ALARO-10KM -> COORDINATION

• Mto-France has a strong interest in improving the model at scales around 10 km (10 km is not a strict limit ! just a "round up" number between 6 and 30),
• The Toulouse team has no longer the leadership of such developments now (since Meso-NH physics is not longer fully imposed and the already started developments, under the supervision of Jean-Franois Geleyn, involved many partners).
• Gwenalle Hello will still work on physics at such scales, in parallel with further work on the AROME prototype.
• The Toulouse physics team cannot involve itself more for the while, because of the required convergence with the physics of the climate version of ARPEGE, and the temporary leave of Jean-Marcel Piriou; the situation is likely to improve however. That's also the reason why ALADIN-France still follows ARPEGE as concerns operational model changes.
• The "divergence" between ARPEGE and ALADIN is not as severe as it may look, since the climate physics is or will be for some aspects closer to the LAM ones than the present configuration (externalized surface, no enveloppe, TKE).

• Why stopping the work on the prototype now, without performing some more investigations in order to better understand the failure ? Yann Seity explained that the tools required for an in-depth analysis won't be ready within 6 months at least. However the partners feel useful to at least check the behaviour of the Meso-NH physics as resolution decreases (e.g. from 10 to 5 km). If Mto-France is not willing to do this (nothing could be promised by the French representatives, because of the standing position of Mto-France on the grey zone), some partners are ready to implement the prototype at home and do the job themselves. Worries about the stays of Tomislav Kovacic and Jure Cedilnik were also expressed. It was also proposed to freeze the sub-project and restart investigations later, once tools available. This of course not preventing work on physics as proposed by Mto-France in the meanwhile. And let's recall that ALADIN partners are ready to contribute to the development of diagnostic tools. PS : the two stays should be devoted to such studies (information received on Friday, 8th)
• The communication policy of Mto-France was questioned (smoothly speaking). The proposal was considered by some as a unilateral decision, without any concertation with partners. There were also remarks on discrepancies between what was told by the different contact points. The bad dissemination of information (in time and among partners) in this case was underlined.
• The privileged status of LACE partners was also discussed. Why should they be first informed ? Why not having a non-LACE representative at LSC to limit such problems ? etc...
• It was emphasized that the coordination of the ALADIN project should be discussed at the next Assembly of Partners. It was also underlined that there must not be any "breaking news" in Split (to which directors should have to answer within a very short lapse of time) : the presentation of the proposal to stop/redirect the ALARO-10 sub-project shall be carefully prepared (politically). - The ALADIN work-plan should be discussed (within scientists) and updated in Split (the next meeting), at least to introduce this new feature and help LACE preparing its own annual work plan.

TRAINING IN 2005 + WORKSHOPS

• NH dynamics (how to run it)
• Meso-NH physics (useful anyway)
• maintenance-1 (Claude Fischer's idea) : how to run the prototype
• maintenance-2 : same content as the previous training course

• Cz (NH)
• Ro
• Si (physics)
• Fr if necessary

• Hu is willing to organize a workshop on data assimilation and LEPS, rather than a training course on maintenance.
• HIRLAM will organize a workshop on mesoscale modelling

• the scientific NH documentation should be put on the ALADIN web site (or its location more clearly indicated if already available)
  -> Dominique Giard to check it with Patricia Pottier and Pierre Bnard
• the access to the documentation on the ALADIN vs GMAP web site will be reorganized (next priority for the web sites)
• there is some Meso-NH documentation on physics already available
  -> Dominique Giard to find the location and send it to ALADIN partners
• LA (Laboratoire d' Arologie) is a priori ready to help to training courses on Meso-NH physics
• more concertation between LACE and the other partners (and maybe also within LACE) would be welcome in this domain.

CYCLES 28T1 AND 28T3

ALADIN AT ECMWF

COOPERATION WITH HIRLAM

MAP FDP

LEPS LECTURES IN VIENNA

LAM SURFACE ANALYSIS

VERIFICATION PROJECT

ALADIN AND REGIONAL CLIMATE MODELLING

ALATNET-2

AOB

Minutes of enlarged CSSI meeting besides the EWGLAM/SRNWP annual meetings, Zurich, 9-12 October 2006

1. Verification project

2. Special project at ECMWF

3. Surfex workshop

4. Date for the ALARO training course

5. Planification effort

6. Term of Reference of CSSI

7. ALADIN consortium in the EWGLAM meeting