A Review on the Current Status of Numerical Weather Prediction in Portugal 2021: Surface–Atmosphere Interactions

Abstract

Earth system modelling is currently playing an increasing role in weather forecasting and understanding climate change, however, the operation, deployment and development of numerical Earth system models are extremely demanding in terms of computational resources and human effort. Merging synergies has become a natural process by which national meteorological services assess and contribute to the development of such systems. With the advent of joining synergies at the national level, the second edition of the workshop on Numerical Weather Prediction in Portugal was promoted by the Portuguese Institute for the Sea and Atmosphere, I.P. (IPMA), in cooperation with several Portuguese Universities. The event was hosted by the University of Évora, during the period of 11–12 of November 2021. It was dedicated to surface–atmosphere interactions and allowed the exchange of experiences between experts, students and newcomers. The workshop provided a refreshed overview of ongoing research and development topics in Portugal on surface–atmosphere interaction modelling and its applications and an opportunity to revisit some of the concepts associated with this area of atmospheric sciences. This article reports on the main aspects discussed and offers guidance on the many technical and scientific modelling platforms currently under study.

Keywords

• Earth system modelling
• Earth observations
• numerical weather prediction
• land modelling
• surface–atmosphere interactions
• global circulation models