ACADEMIA

This year the Met Office is celebrating its 150th anniversary, and it's just published its 2003/2004 Annual report and accounts. It places great emphasis on technology at the heart of change in the Met Office. Formed in 1854 as a small department within the Board of Trade, it has become Europe's leading National Meteorological Service, with an international reputation for scientific research that is second to none. Peter Ewins, Chief Executive of the met Office says: "With regard to business performance, we met six out of seven of our Key Performance Targets, improving the accuracy of our weather forecasts, the quality of our services and our overall efficiency. At the same time, our financial performance was substantially above expectation and, for the first time in several years, we met our commercial contribution target. Importantly, we also halted the decline in our revenue, and are now well positioned to achieve substantial growth over the next 12 months. While we failed to meet our staff skills index, our performance over several years has shown a welcome and steady increase." "It is a mark of the success of our relocation programme that most of our customers were unaware of our actual move from Bracknell to Exeter. This move — frequently referred to as the largest single IT-based move ever attempted in Europe — was successfully completed on time and within planned costs. " The move into new buildings began during Summer 2003, while construction work continued. IT operations were switched over on 23 July 2003, with two control teams running in tandem at Bracknell and Exeter to ensure a seamless service. Similarly, there was a short period of dual running when the forecasting element of the Operations Centre was switched over on 28 August 2003. On 18 December 2003, the building was officially handed over by the contractor, Stratus consortium, to Ivor Caplin MP, the Under Secretary of State for Defence, on behalf of the Secretary of State for Defence. New supercomputer The power of the supercomputer ultimately constrains the size of the forecast area and the level of detail that can be represented in the computer models used for Numerical Weather Prediction. The more powerful NEC SX6 supercomputer will allow the domain of the existing UK model to be extended in order to cover a substantial part of the North Atlantic and much of Europe. The benefit of this increased area is a more-accurate representation of the evolving Atlantic systems, which will provide improved forecasting of severe weather events as those systems reach the UK and Europe. This new model configuration has undergone trials and will become operational in 2004. Many of the Met Office services are accessible online and it has improved delivery through a significant upgrade in bandwidth, from 8 to 30 Mb per second. The Met Office has also begun a review of its web site that will deliver further significant improvements to design and content. Harnessing new technology The Met Office harnesses new technology to improve performance and deliver services to customers. By giving customers new ways to use and interact with the information provided, it has been able to increase significantly the value of services offered. For example, the new EnviroMet service is a powerful, easy-to-use web-based service that enables customers to react quickly to hazardous weather within catchment areas. Its specialised GIS (geographical information system) tools allow users to analyse real-time weather and hydrological information and to take prompt and effective action. One use of this system is to enable local authorities to better manage flood risks. For example, if a council knows that the combination of forecast heavy rainfall and existing conditions mean a particular area is likely to flood, prompt action such as clearing debris from drains and culverts can help reduce flood damage. EnviroMet gives access to high-resolution radar data, highlighting storms that might be missed by a rain-gauge network alone and allowing customers to improve their water resource modelling and management systems.