First experience with the application of the METRo model in the Czech Republic

0425249 - ÚFA 2015 RIV NL eng J - Journal Article
Sokol, Zbyněk - Zacharov, Petr, jr. - Sedlák, Pavel - Hošek, Jiří - Bližňák, Vojtěch - Chládová, Zuzana - Pešice, Petr - Škuthan, M.
First experience with the application of the METRo model in the Czech Republic.
Atmospheric Research. Roč. 143, 15 June 2014 (2014), s. 1-16. ISSN 0169-8095. E-ISSN 1873-2895
R&D Projects: GA TA ČR(CZ) TA01031509
Institutional support: RVO:68378289
Keywords : road meteorology * road surface conditions * forecasting model
Subject RIV: DG - Athmosphere Sciences, Meteorology
Impact factor: 2.844, year: 2014
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169809514000192

This paper presents our first experience with the application of the METRo model, which forecasts road surface temperature and road conditions (e.g., wet or dry surface, ice) in the Czech Republic. In our version, the model uses online measurements from road weather stations (RWS) in the Czech Republic and weather forecasts from ALADIN, the operational numerical weather prediction NWP model of the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute. The METRo model was quasi-operationally tested during the winter season (November 2012–February 2013) using data from 25 RWS. We compared three model runs with an emphasis on road surface temperature. The first run used the original model and served as a reference. The second run applied model output statistics (MOS) to ALADIN forecasts of temperature and humidity at 2 m above the ground, which are required by METRo. The third run applied METRo in a nowcasting mode by starting the model every hour and using new measurements available from the RWS. The results indicated that MOS improved the accuracy of the temperature and humidity at 2 m but had little impact on the forecasted road surface temperature. However, the nowcasting scheme significantly improved the accuracy of the forecasts for the initial 3 to 4 h.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0231155