Exploring the World Meteorological Organization's World Weather Research Programme
- Sally Potter
- Sep 6, 2024
- 6 min read
Introduction
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. I'm fortunate to be at the WMO this week for the annual meeting of the World Weather Research Programme (WWRP), as co-lead of one of its main research projects, the High Impact Weather project.
I thought it would be fitting to summarise what the WWRP is, how it fits into the WMO, what some of the new projects are that are under development, and how it's work is relevant for scientists and emergency management professionals globally.
While I've tried my best to have the information below accurate, the WMO is a very large beast of an organisation, there are a HUGE number of different groups, teams, and projects, it uses particular terminology, and it has an alphabet soup of acronyms - you can find more information about the WMO on its website.
Aim of the WMO WWRP
The WMO World Weather Research Programme (WWRP) plays a critical role in advancing the science of weather prediction and enhancing its societal benefits. Set up in 1998, its main objectives are to focus on:
Advancing Earth System Research: Conducting research that improves understanding and prediction of the Earth system from minutes to months ahead, using a science-for-services approach to deliver actionable weather information at local and regional levels.
Improving Warning Processes: Enhancing warning systems to better reflect increasing risks and the evolving impacts of extreme weather events, helping to ensure that these warnings effectively reach and inform those affected.
Reducing Prediction Uncertainty: Striving to quantify and minimize uncertainty in weather predictions over short to medium timescales, from minutes to months, and effectively communicate it.
The WWRP also recognizes that effective communication of forecasts, warnings, and their associated uncertainties - along with understanding their potential impacts - poses significant challenges. To tackle these challenges, the WWRP uses an interdisciplinary approach, integrating insights from social sciences, engaging with academia, and fostering collaboration with early career scientists to strengthen the overall value cycle of weather-related research and services.
The WWRP helps to integrate National Meteorological and Hydrological Services operational and academic research agendas and facilitate international research programmes and directions to address them.
WWRP drives progress by leading major international research projects and field campaigns, coordinating databases with other parts of the WMO, and promoting the exchange of scientific knowledge. Its efforts include Research and Development Projects (RDPs), Forecast Demonstration Projects (FDPs) for applying research to operations, and initiatives to enhance the social and economic applications of weather information, with a special focus on benefiting both developed and developing countries.
How does the WWRP fit within the WMO?
The WWRP sits alongside the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) and the Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) Programme under the WMO Research Board on Weather, Climate, Water and the Environment. The Research Board aims to turn the strategic aims of the WMO into scientific research strategies.
The WWRP works in collaboration with the Services Commission and Infrastructure Commission, which are other large divisions within the WMO. They both have much longer, technical names, and of course, acronyms. There are many Expert Teams and Committees within these, with examples including the Expert Team for Early Warning Services, and the Standing Committee for Disaster Risk Reduction under the Services Commission. It has been interesting being part of both of these teams/committees over the past year or so and seeing how they are contributing to the UN call for Early Warnings for All by 2027.
The Scientific Steering Committee of the WWRP provides guidance for several large international research projects and working groups. There is an annual meeting of the WWRP in Geneva, which is what I'm at this week.
Recent WWRP Research Projects
In the past 10ish years, the main research projects under the WWRP have been:
Polar Prediction Project (PPP) with a focus on improving weather and climate predictions in polar regions on the time scale of hours to seasonal.
Sub-seasonal to Seasonal Prediction Project (S2S) which aimed to enhance predictions on a medium-range timescale.
High Impact Weather Project (HIWeather) which aims to promote international coordination of research activities to increase resilience to severe weather events. You can read more about this HIWeather project on my blog post.
In addition, the WWRP has helped to facilitate and take part in Forecast Demonstration Projects. These test and validate innovative forecasting techniques, with an example being looking at forecasts and decisions being made by MeteoFrance weather forecasters for the Paris 2024 Olympics. There are also several Working Groups and Technical Groups, and Regional Activities that come under WWRP.
These main projects have now either wrapped up, or in the case of HIWeather, are in the process of finishing by the end of 2024. Excitingly, we have our final HIWeather summit in Munich, Germany, next week, 9-13 September, where we will be sharing our key findings.
New WWRP projects
A new set of projects are currently being set up for the period of 2024-2027. These include:
PCAPS - Polar Coupled Analysis and Prediction for Services, which is looking at coupling models and promoting international cooperation in research in the Arctic and Antarctic areas.
SAGE - Sub-seasonal Applications for aGriculture and Environment, researching weather forecasts on a seasonal to sub-seasonal time scale, including how this information is used.
InPRHA - Integrating the Prediction of Precipitation and Hydrology for early Action, focusing on cascading hazards from precipitation to flooding on the scale of minutes to days, understanding the forecast model advancements, impacts and decision needs.
Urban - looking at high resolution modelling in urban environments, integrated with societal risk and planning.
PEOPLE - Progressing EW4All [Early Warnings for All] Oriented to Partnerships and Local Engagement, investigating policy and governance, and projects that will involve key users right from the start.
ADVANCE - Aiding Decision-making in Vulnerable Africa with Nowcasting of ConvEction, which is pulling together a number of projects across Africa.
It is exciting to see what these new projects end up achieving, and I look forward to hearing how they go over the next few years.
How is the work of WWRP relevant for you?
The various projects, teams, and working groups advance our capabilities in weather forecasting, our understanding of how communities are impacted, and how we can develop more effective early warnings for all people. These new understandings and scientific advancements feed into meteorological services globally to improve monitoring, forecasting, and communication practices.
The findings are published as WMO guidelines, such as this one on using Citizen Science in weather services, led by fellow New Zealander, Marion Tan and others from Massey University (the guidance notes are shown below in the image). These guidelines are used by meteorological services to inform their practices.
Scientific advancements feeding into meteorological modelling and forecasts are also published in journal articles and books, providing the foundation for new research to build on. Key examples are a special issue organised through HIWeather on weather communication, and this open access book called 'Towards the "perfect" weather warning'. Emergency managers and others who communicate warnings can also learn from the research being conducted and summarised, including in that book. Another example is work by HIWeather scientists in collaboration with the Working Group on Societal and Economic Research Applications on understanding the Warning Value Chain. Anyone can fill in a post-event survey template to document case studies for further research to understand where weak links are in the chain from meteorology, through hazards and impacts, to communication and decision-making.
WWRP also provides opportunities for scientists, including early career scientists, to join this international network and take part in the projects. There are the occasional open calls for membership of the project steering groups or their task teams, and there is a WMO expert database that can be joined. Webinars, conferences, and workshops are also held and are often open to anyone interested. The WWRP newsletter advertises such opportunities - you can subscribe to it here.
Conclusion
The WMO World Weather Research Programme coordinates international research projects and provides an excellent opportunity to be involved in a network of scientists from around the world. I enjoy hearing about the progress of the projects and working groups at the annual meeting and contributing towards how social science and a multi-hazard lens can be integrated into the projects.
The value of the WWRP work is in giving WMO activities with national meteorological services an evidence base, and to ensure innovation continues to underpin weather forecasts and the communication of warnings worldwide.
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