EUMeTrain: Nowcasting CAL Module - Forecasting Material and Methods

The Aladin Local Area Model

These are the charts we are computing from our LAM model Aladin which is in use in many weather services. LAM is the abbreviation for Limited Area Models. There are quite a lot of LAMs in use in Europe (Hirlam, LM, etc).

The characteristics for the LAM Model Aladin (Austria) are:

From the physical point of view the same is true as for the global model. The forecast is the result of a mathematical dynamical model: Atmosphere and the physical processes going on are formulated in form of the equations derived in physics. As neither these contained processes nor the actual measurements initialising the model can be complete, the forecasts are of course incomplete and erraneous. The longer the model is forecasting the less is the skill of the model. On the other hand are those models the only information about the processes taking place in the near future.

In contrast to the global models have LAM models (which are quite often embedded in global models) a better space resolution and should contain more small scale physical processes. For mountaineous regions like the Alpine region, the forecast quality is still worse than for easier plain areas.

 

"And what about the quality of the local area model?"

"Again, the quality is assessed in various ways. I'll tell you about that later as well!"

"Next, let's have a look at meteorological observations. Follow this link to find out about that!"