The parallel tests leading to the adoption of the new version were carried out at FMI and INM. The results of these tests are described in articles by Simo Järvenoja (page 20) and by José Antonio García-Moya and Isabel Martínez (page 29). Extensive recent tests done at DMI, and based on HIRLAM Version 2.5, are described by Niels Woetman-Nielsen, Bjarne Amstrup and Jess Jørgensen (page 34). Additional evaluations of the new version were carried out at SMHI and KNMI. I should like to thank all those scientists who were active in the testing which led to the new model version: this has been a monumental effort, and the HIRLAM Project has advanced significantly, thanks to your hard work.
Work on revising the Scientific Plan has begun. You have probably been contacted already by one of the Management Group members. Please make every effort to contribute actively to the revision of the Plan. It is essential that we all have a clear vision of where we are heading, and agreement on how the work of the Project should be shared out. When the revision is ready, it will be distributed to all HIRLAM scientists, and will be finalised at the All-Staff Meeting in May.
This Newsletter contains reports of several HIRLAM meetings which have taken place recently. The Management Group continued its series of visits to member institutes, with a visit to FMI in January. We were most impressed by the quality and range of work being undertaken at FMI. A full report of the visit starts on page 8. Bent Hansen Sass summarises the mini-workshop on Numerical Noise, which was held in DMI in November. Ad Stoffelen writes about HIRLAM-4 activities on the use of satellite data, following a meeting in DNMI late last year. And, finally, a report of a planning meeting on condensation, held in Helsinki in January was also prepared by Bent (page 18).
There is an ambitious programme of meetings for 1998. A workshop on Variational Assimilation is imminent. This will be at Météo-France, Toulouse. An evaluation meeting on turbulence parameterisation is scheduled for late March, in De Bilt. And arrangements have begun for a workshop on high-resolution integrations, cloud parameterisation and precipitation forecasting, which it is hoped to hold in Madrid in the Autumn. Further details of this will follow later.
The impact of filtering the HIRLAM orography on preciptiation forecasts is discussed (page 43) in an article by Aidan McDonald and Cisco de Bruijn (Cisco is working at Met Éireann for six months). A brief description of a new model for cloud forecasting---MetCast--- is provided by Sibbo van der Veen (page 47).
The 1998 All-Staff Meeting will be in Oslo in early May. Those of you who had the good fortune to participate in an NWP meeting in Lysebu, organised by DNMI some years ago, will remember with pleasure this congenial venue. Its splendid sylvan setting and comfortable facilities will provide us with ideal conditions for our meeting. It is in the interest of HIRLAM-4 that as many as possible of the HIRLAM staff participate in the meeting. I look forward to seeing you all in Oslo.
The HIRLAM internal communication system (the `HIRLAM Extranet') has now been put into operation. Its `home-page' is printed on pages 49--51. Since the HIRLAM Newsletter is distributed more widely than just to HIRLAM participants, some e-mail addresses have been removed from the printed version to avoid junk mail but they are, of course, available in the original Extranet document. If you want access to the Extranet, please send e-mail to the HIRLAM System Manager, Gerard Cats (cats@knmi.nl). The Extranet is an invaluable communication mechanism for HIRLAM. It provides us with a powerful and versatile means of disseminating information. I strongly encourage you all to use this facility. To support words with action, I have written a brief note on HTML, the `Lingua Franca of the Web'. You will see from this (page 52) how very simple it is to use the Extranet, actively as well as passively; and how enjoyable, too.