dphase_aladfr: ALADIN-France operational model forecasts run by Meteo-France for the MAP D-PHASE project

Project: D-PHASE, Demonstration of Probabilistic Hydrological and Atmospheric Simulation of flood Events in the Alpine region - The Mesoscale Alpine Programme (MAP, the first WWRP Research and Development Project (RDP)) is an international research initiative devoted to the study of atmospheric and hydrological processes over mountainous terrain. It aims towards expanding our knowledge of weather and climate over complex topography, and thereby to improve current forecasting capabilities. A large-scale field phase in the Alpine region took place from 7 September to 15 November 1999. D-PHASE (Demonstration of Probabilistic Hydrological and Atmospheric Simulation of flood Events in the Alpine region) is a WWRP Forecast Demonstration Project (FDP) and aims at demonstrating some of the many achievements of MAP, in particular the ability of forecasting heavy precipitation and related flooding events in the Alpine region. The MAP FDP will address the entire forecasting chain ranging from limited-area ensemble forecasting, high-resolution atmospheric modelling(km-scale), hydrological modelling, and nowcasting to decision making by the end users, i.e., it is foreseen to set up an end-to-end forecasting system. The demonstration period of MAP D-PHASE will be 1 June to 30 November 2007. See also official homepage: http://www.map.meteoswiss.ch/map-doc/dphase/dphase_info.htm Please be aware of the common COPS/GOP/D-PHASE data policy, which you please find at http://cops.wdc-climate.de/ Summary: ALADIN is the operational model at Meteo-France. The horizontal resolution is 9.5km, the time step : 415s with a Semi-lagrangian scheme. There are 46 vertical levels with 15 levels below 3000m. The domain of the integration is : (-11.84W, 33.14E) (25N,56.95N) Physical parameterization: - the micro-physics scheme use 4 prognostic variables: liquid and ice cloud water, rain and snow. - the convection scheme is based on Bougeault (1985) with a donwdraft parameterization. - the operational ECMWF radiation code which is called every 60 minutes. - the burbulence is based on Louis's function with an interactive mixing length. ALADIN is coupled with ARPEGE every 3 hours and has its own assimilation system based on 3DVAR. The post-processing in GRIB files is done on a regular LAT-LON Grid with a 0.1 deg resolution on the DPHASE domain. ALADIN-FRANCE daily performs 54h forecasts starting at 0TU, 6TU, 12TU, 18TU (only the 0UTC forecast until 30h is sent) Grid description: DDOM: xfirst: 2.0 yfirst: 43.0 xsize: 161.0 ysize: 71.0 xinc: 0.1 yinc: 0.1 xnpole: 0.0 ynpole: 0.0