Météo-France status report
Bruno Lacroix
Météo-France, DPrévi/COMPAS
42, av. Coriolis, F-31057 TOULOUSE Cedex
Supercomputer:
The present configuration is a Fujitsu VPP5000, in operation since 8th February 2000. It has 31 processors, 21 with 8Gbyte memory each and 10 with 4 Gbyte. The efficiency is 3.2 Gflops per processor.
Models configuration:
A / New configuration for the ARPEGE stretched model (January 2002):
Increased vertical resolution to 41 levels and extension to 1hPa, linear grid of collocation
ARPEGE global spectral model resolution is TL298 C3.5 L41 (the spectral orography remains T199). The stretching factor 3.5 is unchanged and produces a resolution of TL1043 at the center of France, and TL85 over New Zeland.
B / New configuration for the 4DVAR assimilation (January 2002):
The 4D-VAR multi-incremental assimilation resolution are TL107- TL166 C1L41 , with a 6-hour window. 
A semi-lagrangian with linear grid of collocation scheme is now used in the assimilation.
C / ALADIN regional spectral model 9.5km L41 without data assimilation, 
The regional model has followed ARPEGE new vertical resolution and the use of linear grid.
D / Cyclone model:
Once a day , at 00UTC, a new uniform configuration called ARPEGE-Tropiques is run, with an experimental status. The geometry is TL299L41, which is equivalent to 66 km grid point resolution.
The assimilation is a 4DVAR scheme , whose geometry is TL107 C1 L41. It includes bogussing for cyclone position and a specific tuning for SATOB data use.
An ALADIN Reunion configuration (33 km L41) is coupled with this model up to 72 hour forecast.
E / Climate model:
9 lagged runs a month for 4 month forecast, starting from ECMWF analysis with NCEP SST forcing.
The model used is ARPEGE-Climat T63L31 
F/ Operational suite scheduling:
HH	0000 UTC	0600 UTC	1200 UTC	1800 UTC	
ARPEGE long cut-off 	8H15 	6H50	8H15	6H50	
ARPEGE short cut-off  	1H50	3H	1H50	3H	
ARPEGE range	96H	42H	72H	30H	
ALADIN range 	48H	42H	36H	30H	
Tropiques long cut-off	9H55	15H45	9H10	9H15	
Tropiques short cut-off	3H30				
Tropiques range	72H				
G/ Boundary conditions
ARPEGE produces boundary conditions for the ALADIN applications run by LACE in Pragues, in Morocco, Romania and Bulgaria, Poland, Portugal, while ALADIN-France provides boundary conditions for ALADIN-Belgique.
G/ Data used in global model assimilation:
All SYNOP, SHIP, BUOY, TEMP, TEMPSHIP, TEMPDROP, PILOT, AIREP, AMDAR, ACARS.
All Cloud motion winds (GOES E and W, Meteosat 5 and 7, GMS) in SATOB code 
ATOVS 120 km HIRS (NOAA16) and AMSU-A radiances (NOAA15 and NOAA16).
Telecoms:
RMDCN links relevant to US/Europe data exchange:
PVC from Toulouse to 	CIR (kbps)  in	CIR (kbps)  out	
United Kingdom 	256	128	
It contains all SMT bulletins, except for the moment GOES CMW in BUFR, waiting for a NESDIS-EUMETSAT standard format.
Raw radiances files from NOAA14 (HIRS and MSU), NOAA15 and NOAA16 (HIRS, AMSU-A, AMSU-B), and DMSP F13 and F15 (SSM/I), and Quikscat data files are also transmitted is this link.
Daily volume of files received at Toulouse (Mbytes):
Mbytes	NOAA14	NOAA15	NOAA16	Total	
HIRS	38	35	38	111	
AMSU-A	0	17	18	35	
AMSU-B	0	70	75	145	
MSU	0.9	0	0	0.9	
*	39	122	131	292	

Mbytes	DMSP F13	DMSP F15	Total	
SSM/I	65	65	130	

Mbytes	Quikscat	Total	
Seawind	180	180	

The average volume received at Toulouse from Bracknell is 1 Gbytes, including the above 600 Mbytes data. The average volume sent to Bracknell is 225 Mbytes. For memo, the daily volume of all ascii messages containing in situ observations (SYNOP, SHIP, TEMP, AMDAR, AIREP) is about 11Mbytes, and the one of SATOB messages is about the same (12 Mbytes).

Toulouse-Lannion 1Mbit/s dedicated link: The geostationary satellites imagery received at Bracknell (3-hourly Visible and Infra-Red imagery for GMS from Melbourne, and GOES from Dorval) are transmitted to Meteosat via Lannion for redistribution among EUMETSAT countries. GOES-E being already received directly at Lannion and retransmitted to Meteosat. 
Lannion-Suitland link : 
PVC from Lannion	CIR (kbps) in	CIR (kbps) out	MIR (kbps) in	MIR (kbps) out	
Suitland	128	128	256	256	
Lannion to Suitland :	IODC data from Meteosat 5 all chanels at full resolution every 30 minutes and  AVHRR data received at Lannion
Suitland to Lannion: 	GOES-W data for FSDS service of Eumetsat
Other relevant links:
PVC from Toulouse to 	CIR (kbps)  in	CIR (kbps)  out	
ECMWF	512	256	
French West Indies	128	128	
The link to French West Indies is already used as part of GTS for North American data.
Details on use of US data:
NOAA14, 15, 16
ATOVS 120km: 
The radiances from NOAA15 and NOAA16 are used. 
The coefficients to unbias the calculated and observed radiances are updated each 6-hour. 
We stopped using NOAA15 HIRS data when the data were wrong. We use now HIRS from NOAA16 and AMSU-A from NOAA15 and 16.

HIRS channels 1, 9, 16 to 20 , and AMSU-A 1 to 4, and 13 to 15 are not used. 

	HIRS	AMSU-A	
Sea	2 to 15	5 to 12	
Earth Z<1500m	2 to 6, 11, 12	8 to 12	
Earth Z>1500m	2,3	8 to 12	
Sea Ice	2 to 5	8 to 12	
Clear	2 to 15	5 to 12	
Cloudy Tropics	2, 3	9 to 12	
Cloudy Extra-tropics	2, 3	5 to 12	
Level 1C AMSU-A 
The situation will probably change this summer. A parallel suite is going on to add profiler winds under 400hPa, and to move to AMSU-A 1C radiances: In this suite, all US and Europe profilers are used , with a blacklist. The temperature of radiosondes at standard level replace geopotentiel at these levels. The bias correction is update once a day with to the first guess taking into account observation departure throughout the 4 assimilation cycles.
No HIRS data is used in the parallel suite. The following table describes the differences in the use in 4DVAR of AMSU-A channels between pre-processed and raw radiances:

Conditions	 ATOVS 120 km	 1C radiances	
Sea 	Channel 5 to 12	5 to 12	
Earth	8 to 12	5 if Z<500m ;
6 if Z<1500m ;
7 to 12 above	
Sea Ice	8 to 12	7 to 12	
Clouds (Precipitation) 	5 to 12	8 to 12	
Tropics	9 to 12	9 to 12	

More AMSU-A channels can be used on earth with raw radiances because of improvements in radiative transfer model surface emissivity parameterisation
Level 1C HIRS
	An other use of this raw radiances is ozone computations and comparison to other sources (ground stations, TOMS/Earth Probe and GOME/ERS-2), which are performed globally on research mode. One goal is to compute global ozone climatology. Another product is partial column ozone (between 400 and 40hPa) to be used in model assimilation. To test SAF-ozone operational suite, an experimental product of HTO=Hirs/4 Total Ozone, which will be derived from Metop 1 and 2, is copied daily on cnrm-ftp.meteo.fr:/pub-eram/o3saf. Focal point (Fernand.Karcher@meteo.fr).
At present, HIRS data from NOAA14 and NOAA16 are processed. When HIRS data from NOAA17 is available, they may replace NOAA14 HIRS data.
GOES 8, 10
GOES SATOB winds: 	SATOBs (InfraRed, Visible and Water Vapour) monitored and used with a thinning (1 per 2.5 degree box, since 4 may 2000) to cope with high-resolution data in ARPEGE analysis. The BUFR products with Quality Index are not used for the moment.
DMSP F13, F15
SSM/I: Maps are produced 4 times a day for forecasters (humidity, wind speed, snow and flag of rain) and sea-ice once a day. These products are transmitted to Meteo-France met centre at La Reunion Island (Indian Ocean), and French West Indies. A note has been written for SAF-Ocean by the Danish institute to mention stray scan lines in the SSM/I BUFR data stream (about 1500 bad orbits since December 2001).
Quikscat
The winds produced by Seawind are available on SYNERGIE software for Marine forecasters.
ACARS
ACARS: Monitored and used operationally (wind and temperature) in the NWP system, but with a thinning (1 in 5, since 8 mars 1999). All phases (cruise, ascent and descent) are used.
PROFILERS
Profilers: The results are promising in 4DVAR assimilation tests (large positive impact in North America, europe and Asia scores), and these data have been included in the current test suite.
SST analysis: 
The SST field is received once a day and used by ARPEGE model as relaxation to climatology in data sparse area. Very few problems on the reception of this product. For the moment , the 1 degree product is used.
French data
Air France aircrafts:
AMDAR messages on the GTS coming from 48 units based on ACARS, as part of the Eucos network. No cruise phase data are produced. An error which caused sometimes wrong position has been detected using data monitoring, and is now corrected.
A new production in BUFR code will be managed in EUCOS framework E-AMDAR. Information will be sent when available.
Profiler: 
The VHF 52.05 MHz profiler installed end 1995 at La Ferté-Vidame (110km SW from Paris), has been declared operational. The data are on the point of being sent to the GTS on BUFR code, using the European sequence of descriptors.
2 other profilers are installed, in Nice and Marignane, but the data are not good enough to be transmitted on the GTS. They are nevertheless sent to Eumetnet members for evaluation, in the new project WINPROF.
BUFR for Tropical cyclone
Acording to 3rd tropical cyclone RSMCs technical corrdination meeting, until october 2001 Meteo-France RSMC in La Reunion has implemented FM 94 BUFR format for the diffusion of information on tropical storms and cyclones in SW Indian Ocean in GTS.
JASON
Details about the transmission of data have been discussed this spring at Pragues by the Expert Team on Data Representation and Codes. The descriptors for BUFR decoding are available near each member of this group. Transmission  on GTS will start in October or November 2002. No headers are defined for the moment. Contact bruno.lacroix@meteo.fr for any question 
Instruments onboard for meteorological data : 
o	Dual-frequency Ku/C band Solid State Radar Altimeter (POSEIDON-2), the Poseidon-2 altimeter, operating at 13.575 GHz (Ku band) and 5.3 GHz (C band), is the primary sensor for the JASON-1 mission. The measurements made at the two frequencies are combined to obtain measurements of the altimeter range, wind speed, significant wave height, and the ionospheric correction. 
o	The JASON-1 Microwave Radiometer (JMR) measures the sea surface microwave brightness temperatures at three frequencies (18.7 GHz, 23.8 GHz and 34.0 GHz) to provide the total water vapor content in the troposphere along the altimeter beam. The 23.8 GHz channel is the primary channel for water-vapor measurement and is a redundant channel on the JMR. The 18.7 GHz channel provides a correction for wind-induced effects in the sea surface background emissions, and the 34.0 GHz channel provides a correction for cloud liquid water. The measurements are combined to obtain the error in the satellite range measurements caused by pulse delay due to the water vapor.
Preparation to MSG
US satellites are used to prepare new products for MSG:
o	GOES-E Imager data, acquired and processed in Lannion, to develop, produce and validate multi-spectral coloured images, cloud classification and cloud top temperature and height products (SAF Nowcasting)
o	MODIS (off line data from DAAC) for cloud classification
o	AVHRR (volcanic ash)
o	GOES-E Imager data for SST, short wave and long wave surface radiative fluxes (SAF-Ocean). If GOES-8 is replaced by GOES-12 (instead of GOES-11) at 75 W, the SST products cannot be processed during daytime anymore (loss of  the 12 micron channel).
Future Plans
New configuration for the supercomputer is planed in second half-year 2003: this machine will be 4 times more powerful than the present one with 124 processors. This will be the configuration until 2006.

Concerning data assimilation, the following actions are planned:
o	Use of NOAA16 HIRS again but at 1C level
o	Use of local ATOVS radiances received by CMS/Lannion.
o	use of DMSP SSM/I radiances (assimilation of radiances or 1DVAR retrieved integrated water vapour content and surface wind speed).
o	Use of Seawind data

To prepare the use of new data, or in order to improve the supervision of data or their management:
o	Monitoring of AIRS
o	Radiance monitoring statistics should be available via internet at the end of 2002.
o	New procedure to unbias radiosonde temperature (radiation correction).
o	Monitoring and possible assimilation of a new set of winds from Eumetsat with use of Quality Index

Concerning MSG, it is planned, in accordance with the MSG-1 commissioning schedule, to start validating the MSG products processed at CMS in Lannion in June 2003.