His Excellency Georg Boomgaarden, German Ambassador in London, visited the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) on 25 November 2008. He was accompanied by Ms. Petra Bethge, First Secretary Transport Affairs at the Embassy.
Dominique Marbouty, Director of ECMWF, gave an overview of the Centre’s objectives and its main research and operational activities, particularly emphasising the accuracy of ECMWF’s medium-range forecast products allowing early warning of severe weather events, and highlighting the intense use of satellite data and the Centre’s supercomputing expertise. He also drew the visitors’ attention to the role ECMWF is playing for the European Union’s and ESA’s Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) initiative by co-ordinating the GMES Atmosphere Service (GAS) and contributing to other GMES services. ECMWF also expects to provide global reanalyses to be used in a new project aimed at climate services.
Ambassador Boomgaarden was impressed by the high quality of ECMWF’s output and congratulated the Director and his staff on the steady progress made since the establishment of the Centre. He said: “I would like to encourage the Director and the staff to continue the excellent services ECMWF provides to the Member and Co-operating States, but also to continue its contribution to climate monitoring.”
