Weather forecasts were improved through cloud observations from the satellites

We developed a method in which the cloud observations are used as an input for HARMONIE weather forecast model in a way that it's initial conditions are closer to actual observations. Method improves the cloud cover forecasts up to 2-4 hours, which benefits for example forecasts of solar energy production.

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In general, clouds are hard to forecast correctly, but on the other hand cloud observations are rarely used to define the initial conditions for the forecast model. Aim of this research was to improve the weather forecast model in how it predicts cloud cover and sunshine by using cloud observations both from ground-level measurement stations and from satellites.

Topic is interesting as cloudiness and cloud cover are important for many end-users and sunshine and solar radiation are vital for example in providing information on conditions for solar energy production, e.g., energy weather forecasts.

More information:

Research professor Anders Lindfors, 050 433 1055, anders.lindfors@fmi.fi

Gregow et al. 2020. The use of satellite and surface observations for initializing clouds in the HARMONIE NWP model. Meteorological applications.

Link to the scientific article: https://doi.org/10.1002/met.1965

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