2nd MEETING and TRAINING
25–29 May 2010
Budapest, Hungary
Attendees: ARSO, IHPS, OMSZ, VITUKI, ATIVIZIG, ISSNP, NIMH, AUA, GEORAMA, DHMZ, UNSFA, RHMSS, ZHMS, HMS, INEUM, JVP Vode Vojvodine
THE 2nd CONSORTIUM MEETING
THE 2nd CONSORTIUM MEETING
The 2nd DMCSEE Consortium Meeting took place in Hungary on 1st and 2nd February 2010. From 2nd to 5th February training on climatological homogenization and interpolation methods was implemented for the staff of DMCSEE consortium. The 2nd Meeting & Training was organised by OMSZ and took place at OMSZ headquarters in Budapest.
During the meeting an overview of project activities from kick-off meeting (September 2009) till the 2nd meeting was made.
Moreover, reporting procedures and deadlines were presented as well as a reporting workshop was organised by Alianta. The updated Management Plan was presented as well as administrative and reporting procedures for ERDF and IPA partners.
DMCSEE’s website and intranet was represented by GEORAMA to the consortium. The already implemented dissemination activities were presented and the implementation and monitoring of the Communication Plan was discussed.
All WP leaders participated at the Quality Management Board meeting. Work on WP3, WP4 and WP5 was discussed and deadlines for each task were set. The work and deadlines were presented on the next day to all partners.
OMSZ and AUA (WP3 and WP4 leaders) presented the work that had been implemented until then and analysed the following steps that should be undertaken by all partners for the proceeding of the project.
In general, throughout the 2nd Meeting the partners had the opportunity to present what they had done on the project till the 2nd meeting and what their experiences were. Finally, conclusions and “TO DO list” were defined and the following internal deadlines were set.
TRAINING ON CLIMATOLOGICAL HOMOGENIZATION AND INTERPOLATION METHODS
First training in the scope of the DMCSEE project was organized by Hungarian meteorological service (OMSZ) and took place in Budapest from 2nd to 5th February 2010. Main aim of the training was to improve knowledge and capacities of DMCSEE project partners in climatological practices which are necessary for drought monitoring.
Since drought is usually defined as deviation from “normal conditions”, it is crucial to ensure good knowledge of “normal conditions”. In practice that means long data time series. Unfortunately, in reality measured data time series hide many surprises – in most cases caused by relocations of measurement stations, changes of measuring instruments etc. This is the reason why application of homogenization techniques is so important. Homogenization as technique for elimination of features in data series that are not connected to climate was introduced by Olivier Mestre from Meteo-France, one of leading scientists in this field. Comprehensive theoretical introduction was followed by practical examples of temperature and precipitation data treatment. Introduction was followed by practical work using MASH software, developed by OMSZ and presented by Tamas Szentimrey. One of advantages of MASH software (which is available for project partners and was distributed to the participants during the training) is large degree of automatization. In automatic mode, MASH does not need intense manual interventions (although it can include provided information on possible “break points” in data series). Participants had opportunity to try MASH software on examples provided by OMSZ.
Second part of the workshop started with presentation of SAGA GIS software, which was presented by Akos Nemeth from OMSZ. Spatial manipulation and presentation of drought monitoring products often require use of GIS software. Many institutions due to nature of their work need complex GIS systems and have therefore purchased licensed software. However, for basic spatial interpolation and presentation of data one can try to use solutions that are available as open source. SAGA GIS software is among such solutions. SAGA was also distributed to participants. Lectures on spatial interpolation started with presentation of Mojca Dolinar from Environmental Agency of Slovenia. She has presented standard applications of geostatistics for spatial interpolation of climatological and drought monitoring data. Next lecturer, Reinhardt Schiemann from Meteo Swiss, presented some more advanced applications mainly for complex terrain. Geostatistics can easily become less reliable if one doesn’t take actual area with its physical characteristics into consideration. Practical part of interpolation session was opened by introduction to optimal interpolation with emphasis on SPI interpolation by Tamas Szentimrey and followed by Zita Bihari from OMSZ who presented MISH software. MISH is software, developed by OMSZ which applies statistical interpolation technique with use of past data; that makes it particularly useful for meteorological applications such as drought monitoring. MISH software was distributed among participants and they have had opportunity to test it on data provided by OMSZ. Last lecture, given by Gregor Gregorič, DMCSEE project coordinator, summarized expectations within the project. He has provided participants with further examples and demonstrations and provided few hints how to proceed with project work within work packages.
During the meeting an overview of project activities from kick-off meeting (September 2009) till the 2nd meeting was made.
Moreover, reporting procedures and deadlines were presented as well as a reporting workshop was organised by Alianta. The updated Management Plan was presented as well as administrative and reporting procedures for ERDF and IPA partners.
DMCSEE’s website and intranet was represented by GEORAMA to the consortium. The already implemented dissemination activities were presented and the implementation and monitoring of the Communication Plan was discussed.
All WP leaders participated at the Quality Management Board meeting. Work on WP3, WP4 and WP5 was discussed and deadlines for each task were set. The work and deadlines were presented on the next day to all partners.
OMSZ and AUA (WP3 and WP4 leaders) presented the work that had been implemented until then and analysed the following steps that should be undertaken by all partners for the proceeding of the project.
In general, throughout the 2nd Meeting the partners had the opportunity to present what they had done on the project till the 2nd meeting and what their experiences were. Finally, conclusions and “TO DO list” were defined and the following internal deadlines were set.
TRAINING ON CLIMATOLOGICAL HOMOGENIZATION AND INTERPOLATION METHODS
First training in the scope of the DMCSEE project was organized by Hungarian meteorological service (OMSZ) and took place in Budapest from 2nd to 5th February 2010. Main aim of the training was to improve knowledge and capacities of DMCSEE project partners in climatological practices which are necessary for drought monitoring.
Since drought is usually defined as deviation from “normal conditions”, it is crucial to ensure good knowledge of “normal conditions”. In practice that means long data time series. Unfortunately, in reality measured data time series hide many surprises – in most cases caused by relocations of measurement stations, changes of measuring instruments etc. This is the reason why application of homogenization techniques is so important. Homogenization as technique for elimination of features in data series that are not connected to climate was introduced by Olivier Mestre from Meteo-France, one of leading scientists in this field. Comprehensive theoretical introduction was followed by practical examples of temperature and precipitation data treatment. Introduction was followed by practical work using MASH software, developed by OMSZ and presented by Tamas Szentimrey. One of advantages of MASH software (which is available for project partners and was distributed to the participants during the training) is large degree of automatization. In automatic mode, MASH does not need intense manual interventions (although it can include provided information on possible “break points” in data series). Participants had opportunity to try MASH software on examples provided by OMSZ.
Second part of the workshop started with presentation of SAGA GIS software, which was presented by Akos Nemeth from OMSZ. Spatial manipulation and presentation of drought monitoring products often require use of GIS software. Many institutions due to nature of their work need complex GIS systems and have therefore purchased licensed software. However, for basic spatial interpolation and presentation of data one can try to use solutions that are available as open source. SAGA GIS software is among such solutions. SAGA was also distributed to participants. Lectures on spatial interpolation started with presentation of Mojca Dolinar from Environmental Agency of Slovenia. She has presented standard applications of geostatistics for spatial interpolation of climatological and drought monitoring data. Next lecturer, Reinhardt Schiemann from Meteo Swiss, presented some more advanced applications mainly for complex terrain. Geostatistics can easily become less reliable if one doesn’t take actual area with its physical characteristics into consideration. Practical part of interpolation session was opened by introduction to optimal interpolation with emphasis on SPI interpolation by Tamas Szentimrey and followed by Zita Bihari from OMSZ who presented MISH software. MISH is software, developed by OMSZ which applies statistical interpolation technique with use of past data; that makes it particularly useful for meteorological applications such as drought monitoring. MISH software was distributed among participants and they have had opportunity to test it on data provided by OMSZ. Last lecture, given by Gregor Gregorič, DMCSEE project coordinator, summarized expectations within the project. He has provided participants with further examples and demonstrations and provided few hints how to proceed with project work within work packages.
