Climate Service Centre

The Climate Service Centre is a research unit at the Finnish Meteorological Institute. Its mission is to do climate change research to support adaptation by promoting high quality multidisciplinary weather, climate and socio-economic research in close collaboration with the stakeholders. Its main funders are EU-H2020, EU-C3S, Academy of Finland, Tekes, Prime Minister's Office and the Ministry of Transport and Communications. The annual budget is around 1,7 million euros. It currently employs about 35 people.

Research areas and other activities

• The Weather and Climate Research group studies the regional features of the past, present and projected climate especially but not only limited to Finland using multi-model climate products (CMIP and CORDEX). The purpose is to produce user-relevant information on the changing climate, significant weather phenomena such as storms, lightning, floods, drought, heat waves, and freezing rain to support adaptation and mitigation planning.
• The Socio-economic Impact Research group studies various socio-economic aspects of weather, climate and climate change in Finland, Europe and globally. The purpose of the research is to support and promote society's resilience and adaptive capacity to respond to weather and climate risks, and especially to assess benefits and costs of weather and climate research-based services. Its new research focus areas are the Arctic climate change impacts, climate change adaptation for well-being of citizens, and climate service market development.
• The Climate Applications group is responsible for sectoral product development and diversification of climate research-based services. It also maintains Climateguide.fi web portal. The group provides homogenized high-resolution gridded datasets using observations, and specializes its sectoral focus of work especially in agriculture and forestry but also water and energy. It also promotes the uptake and piloting of the monthly to seasonal forecasts in the research-based service design.

Projects of the Climate Service centre

Started in 2016-2017

EU-C3S Data Evaluation for Climate Models (2016-2018). Activities in this project will address multi-model climate model products CMIP and CORDEX. Scientific robustness regarding climate model ensembles is in the heart of the project. Wide variety of current and potential new users of the multi-model climate data are surveyed and champion-users are invited to participate with tool development. With the support of users during we will be able to co-design the best recommendations for multi-model climate model products for the EQC framework. Contact: Hilppa Gregow.

EU-MACS (EU MArket for Climate Services, 2016-2018). The project analyses the market structures and drivers, and obstacles and opportunities of climate services. Climate services cover the generation, provision, and contextualization of information and knowledge derived from climate research for decision-making. The analysis aims at understanding how climate service markets, with public and private features, can develop through better matching procedures and through innovations. This is approached from scientific, technical, legal, ethical, governance and socioeconomic vantage points. The study will engage a large diversity of stakeholders within the finance, tourism and urban planning sectors in various ways, especially through explorative market development exercises, employing different co-design approaches. Funding Agency: EU H2020 Contact: Adriaan Perrels.

MARCO (MArket Research for Climate services Observatory, 2016-2018). This sister project of EU-MACS gathers market research firms, climate scientists, CS practitioners and innovation actors, in dialogue with stakeholders, to provide an enriched European CS market assessment up to 2030 with case studies, forecast future user needs, unveil opportunities, and promote market growth. Feedback loops between several methodologies validate findings. Integrated market research draws on climate vulnerability analysis, potential market estimation, transactional market quantification, qualitative surveys, sectoral / regional case studies. Key output is the Climate Services Observatory. Funding Agency: EU H2020 Contact: Adriaan Perrels.

CLIPS (CLImate services supporting Public activities and Safety, 2016-2018) aims at setting up the proof of concept for extended range (0-46 day long) seamless weather and climate services by developing novel climate impact outlooks (e.g. early warnings)  for phenomena that pose risks and benefits to weather sensitive public activities in Finland. CLIPS focuses as much on urban, rural as sea areas in Finland. The data used in CLIPS are FMI gridded climate data, the PRONTO data (impacts reported by safety authorities to FMI), and reanalysis data and forecasts provided by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). Additionally, CLIPS will engage the public during the project through FMI webpages and Climateguide.fi to take part in the co-creation process of the services. Funding: The Academy of Finland. Contact: Hilppa Gregow.

EU-C3S Clim4Energy (A service providing climate change indicators tailored for the energy sector, 2016-2018). The project brings together the complementary expertise of 7 climate research and service centres and 10 energy practitioners to demonstrate, from case studies, the value chain from ECVs to actionable information in the energy sector. It will deliver 9 energy-relevant pan-European indicators of climate trends and variability with a cross-sectoral consistency, appropriate documentation and guidance, estimation of uncertainties, and a demonstration of use. It will contribute to other Copernicus services by sharing experience and tools on quality control, data access with distributed systems, visualization of complex multi-dimensional data and their uncertainties. Why climate matters for energy – read more here http://clim4energy.climate.copernicus.eu/discovery-space.  Contact: Andrea Vajda.

SSWSS (Severe Weather Warning Services for Sri Lanka 2016-2018). The project will develop tailored thunderstorm and heavy rainfall warning and prediction applications for Sri Lanka and verify them based on lightning location observations. Also, the Finnish industry partners in the project (Vaisala, Profium and Noviaria) will develop 1) tailored smart phone applications to be tested among the selected end users in Sri Lanka and 2) business models which would be usable in other developing economies as well. Funding: Tekes-BEAM (50% Tekes, 50% Ministry of Foreign Affairs). Contact: Antti Mäkelä.

EU-iSCAPE (Improving the Smart Control of Air Pollution in Europe, 2016-2019). The project aims to integrate and advance the control of air quality and carbon emissions in European cities in the context of climate change through the development of sustainable and passive air pollution remediation strategies, policy interventions and behavioural change initiatives. Improvements in air quality, microclimate and behavioural aspects of urban dwellers will be achieved in the selected cities assessed for future climate change scenarios and representative of different cultural and life styles in Europe. FMI cooperates in Finland with the city of Vantaa. Funding: EU H2020. Contact: Antti Mäkelä.

IHKU (The Air Pollution Cost Model for Finland, 2017-2018). The main goal of the IHKU project is to develop a national air pollution cost model for Finland to be used in strategic decision support. The model focuses on mortality, morbidity and health care costs related to air pollution. Other costs, such as ecosystem degradation and loss in the quality of life, are modeled on the basis of a meta-analysis of results from international research. These costs will be compared to the estimated health cost of air pollution. The project also includes a review of different approaches for pollution cost assessment and summarize them for decision-makers in accessible language. Partners: Finnish Environment Institute SYKE (coordinator), National Institute for Health and Welfare THL, and the FMI. Funding: Government's Analysis, Assessment and Research Activities. Contact: Väinö Nurmi.

All the ongoing projects

Recently ended projects

12.5.2017