Tag Archives: data assimilation

Rescuing the Weather

Posted on 13 May, 2019 by danaallen

By: Ed Hawkins Over the past 12 months, thousands of volunteer ‘citizen scientists’ have been helping climate scientists rescue millions of lost weather observations. Why? Figure 1: Data from Leighton Park School in Reading from February 1903. If we are to … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, data assimilation, Data processing, Historical climatology, Outreach | Tagged | Leave a comment

DARE to use datasets of opportunity

Posted on 2 July, 2018 by

By Joanne Waller To accurately forecast the weather, we must first describe what is currently happening in the atmosphere. To determine the current atmospheric state, we could use: Previous forecasts (data from complex computational models of the atmosphere) which provide … Continue reading →

Posted in data assimilation, earth observation, Flooding, University of Reading, Weather forecasting | Tagged | Leave a comment

The “size” of the NWP/DA problem

Posted on 8 May, 2018 by Stephen Burt

By Javier Amezcua There is a professor in the University of Reading that likes to say that the Data Assimilation (DA) problem in Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) is larger than the size of the universe (estimated to be around 1080 … Continue reading →

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Improving estimates of soil moisture over Ghana

Posted on 12 March, 2018 by Stephen Burt

By Ewan Pinnington This work aims to improve estimates of soil moisture over Ghana as part of the ERADACS project. In regions where the population relies on subsistence farming it is soil moisture, rather than precipitation per se, that is … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Climate modelling, data assimilation, Hydrology, land use, Numerical modelling, soil moisture | Tagged | Leave a comment

What’s in a number?

Posted on 10 July, 2017 by Stephen Burt

By Nancy Nichols Should you care about the numerical accuracy of your computer? After all, most machines now retain about 16 digits of accuracy, but usually only about 3-4 figures of accuracy are needed for most applications;  so what’s the … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate modelling, data assimilation, Numerical modelling, Weather forecasting | Leave a comment

Can observations of the ocean help predict the weather?

Posted on 12 June, 2017 by Stephen Burt

By Amos Lawless It has long been recognized that there are strong interactions between the atmosphere and the ocean. For example, the sea surface temperature affects what happens in the lower boundary of the atmosphere, while heat, momentum and moisture … Continue reading →

Posted in Boundary layer, data assimilation, Numerical modelling, Oceans, Weather forecasting | Leave a comment

Can the use of CCTV images improve urban flooding forecasts?

Posted on 3 April, 2017 by Stephen Burt

By Sanita Vetra-Carvalho Urban flooding can result from intense rainfall, flash floods, coastal floods or river floods, the same as in rural areas. However, in cities, unlike in rural areas, there is very little open soil available for water storage … Continue reading →

Posted in data assimilation, Environmental hazards, Hydrology, Urban meteorology | Leave a comment

Observation uncertainty in data assimilation

Posted on 20 March, 2017 by Stephen Burt

By Sarah Dance Approximately 4 million properties in the UK are at risk from surface-water flooding which occurs when heavy rainfall overwhelms the drainage capacity of the local area. Several national weather centres have been developing new numerical forecasting systems … Continue reading →

Posted in data assimilation, earth observation, Numerical modelling, Remote sensing, Weather forecasting | Tagged | Leave a comment