20.03.2009
PANDOWAE sets sights on improving European weather forecasting
With PANDOWAE research European weather forecasting will be more accurate (Copyright: Bernhard Mühr)
Six prestigious research centres in Europe – four of which are in Germany – have set themselves the task of making vast improvements in the quality of weather forecasts. “What happens in the Pacific is just as likely as anything else to influence our weather,” explains Professor Sarah C. Jones from the Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), the spokesperson for the four German research institutions which have joined forces for this project under the name PANDOWAE.
PANDOWAE (Predictability ANd Dynamics Of Weather Systems in the Atlantic-European Sector) is made up of researchers from Karlsruhe, Mainz und Rostock universities as well as the German Aerospace Center in Oberpfaffenhofen. They work closely with Leeds University and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich. Their aim is to make substantial improvements in the worldwide data weather forecast network. With this objective in mind they study disturbances in the strong wind zone at an altitude of around ten kilometres known as “Rossby wave trains”, look in unprecedented detail at the processes involved in the evaporation and condensation of water and also aim to optimise conventional weather forecast models.
Alongside research one of the central concerns of PANDOWAE is the promotion of up and coming scientists. The organisation also runs summer schools which are intended to provide young researchers with the opportunity of meeting and discussing issues with experienced scientists. In this framework PANDOWAE works closely with the Karlsruhe House of Young Scientists.
www.pandowae.de
www.kit.edu
www.uni-karlsruhe.de
