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Opening
of the meeting
Dr. David Anderson
welcomed TIP-6 participants and gave a brief overview of activities at
ECMWF. The Centre mainly focuses on medium range weather forecasting (out
to 10 days), but also is engaged in some efforts related to climate. These
efforts include a recent 15-year global atmospheric reanalysis (1979-93)
which may soon be extended to 40 years, as well as experimental seasonal
climate forecasting. Dr. Anderson noted that both weather and climate
analyses and forecasts make use of TAO data for initialization, and he
expressed his appreciation for the TAO panel working so diligently to
maintain this important data set. Dr. David Burridge, Director of ECMWF,
likewise welcomed the TAO Panel, and further drew further attention to
the value of TAO data for ECMWF activities.
Dr. Michael McPhaden,
Chairman of TIP, expressed his appreciation to ECMWF for agreeing to host
TIP-6. He noted that this meeting was special for at least two reasons.
First, this was the first TAO Panel meeting held at an operational centre;
and second, the meeting was being held in the midst of an intense El Niño
event. Dr. McPhaden suggested that data from the array would prove to
be extremely valuable in studies of the causes and consequences of this
El Niño, and in evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of various
seasonal-to-interannual climate forecasting schemes. He then went on to
review the purposes of the meeting (as detailed in the summary), and the
agenda.
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