Speakers
D. Poelman
(KMI-IRM)
M. Reyniers
(KMI-IRM)
Description
Since mid 2013, the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium sends the output of the INCA-BE system in real-time to Belgocontrol, the Belgian air traffic safety authority. INCA-BE is a nowcasting system for the analysis and nowcasts of several meteorological fields, like temperature, humidity, wind, cloudiness, precipitation and some derived fields like precipitation type and visibility. It operates at a horizontal resolution of 1 km, and on an hourly basis (10 min for precipitation and cloudiness), delivering forecasts up to +12 hours lead time (+4 hours for precipitation). We discuss its main characteristics, the adaptation to our local domain, its data sources, and the current users and applications. Recently, lightning data were added to this system. A "lightning activity field" has been defined for this purpose, and is advected along with the precipitation. This advected field has to be interpreted as a "risk zone" where lightning can potentially occur.
A second product that was recently implemented by the radar group of the RMI and which is directly related to air safety, is the VBIRD radar product. VBIRD filters bird signals out of weather echoes in radar data, and calculates bird density profiles for the three weather radars in Belgium. This product is very effective in detecting nightly mass migration of birds during intense migration events. It is delivered in real-time to the Aviation Safety Directorate of the Belgian Air Force.
