The Earth Sciences Department of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center is heavily represented at the event, showcasing cutting-edge research in climatology and meteorology conducted at the center.
From September 2nd to 6th, the Historic Building of the University of Barcelona is hosting the annual meeting of the European Meteorological Society (EMS). This international meeting is the most important in the field of climatology and meteorology, bringing together over 900 experts, along with various globally recognized figures. This year’s focus, coinciding with EMS’s 25th anniversary, will be on exploring the role of meteorological and climate research in shaping the policies, strategies, and technologies needed to steer Europe towards climate neutrality.
Among the renowned personalities attending the event is the Director of the Earth Sciences Department at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center – Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS), ICREA Professor Francisco Doblas-Reyes. Doblas is globally recognized for his expertise in climate and climate change, and he is the author of over 200 articles, a lead author of the fifth and sixth Assessment Reports of the prestigious Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and a member of several international scientific committees. He is also a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts of Barcelona.
Other notable attendees at the congress include Liz Bentley, President of the EMS and the Royal Meteorological Society (RMetS) of the UK, Stella Kafka, Executive Director of the American Meteorological Society (AMS), Aaron Boone, Director of the LIAISE campaign at the National Center for Meteorological Research in France (Centre National de Recherches Météorologiques – Météo-France), and Carlo Buontempo, Director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).
At the congress, Professor Doblas is co-coordinating, together with Buontempo, the ES1.4 session on “National and International Climate Services: User Engagement and Governance,” which takes place on Tuesday, September 2nd. Doblas will also deliver the keynote presentation in the “Operational Systems and Applications” session. His talk, titled “To Be or Not to Be: The Operationalization of Climate Projections” (Thursday, September 5th), highlights how climate projections are one of the few sources of climate information that do not have an operational status at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). During this presentation, he will illustrate the requirements for the operationalization of climate projections, including developments based on machine learning techniques, and the steps in this direction through the European initiative Destination Earth's Climate Adaptation Digital Twin. The discussion will also cover how to make this operationalization effective through the WMO Integrated Processing and Prediction System (WIPPS) and the development of WMO guidelines on the use and interpretation of climate change projections.
Professor Doblas states: “The EMS conference is a great opportunity for the meteorological and climate community in Catalonia and Spain due to the quality of the presentations and the expertise of the participants. This year’s massive attendance reflects the importance of the challenges that meteorological and climate research and services aim to address.” He adds, “Among the most relevant topics to be discussed are the development of climate services aimed at adaptation and mitigation of climate change, new estimates of predictive quality in meteorology and climate, and the role of artificial intelligence in weather prediction and the provision of new services.”
In addition to Professor Doblas, around thirty researchers from BSC are participating in the conference, all of them contributing in various ways, ranging from organizing thematic sessions to presenting papers and posters. A large portion of the contributions focus on the area of climate services. In this regard, discussions will focus on user engagement strategies and governance structures of climate services as they emerge from national and international efforts. This also includes the significant international efforts related to climate services currently underway, such as the Copernicus programs or My Climate Risk, the flagship European initiative Destination Earth, or the WMO’s Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS).
Marta Terrado, a researcher in the Earth System Services (ESS) group within the same department, states: “The program’s inclusion of transdisciplinary sessions—focusing on the use of climate information in cities and urban areas, the development of indicators for different socioeconomic sectors, or the communication of climate information by the media—highlights the importance of including users in the production of climate services, to tailor the information to their real needs, thereby increasing its utility for decision-making.” Terrado co-leads the Knowledge Integration (KI) team within the ESS group, which is dedicated to co-producing climate and environmental services by integrating different sources of knowledge through a co-production process, in order to achieve equitable and user-centered services and products that can be easily used by society.
The booth of the BSC Earth Sciences Department at the conference presents the most innovative research being conducted in the department in the field of meteorology and climatology, as well as in other topics such as air quality, atmospheric composition, and the impact of climate change on various sectors of daily life, including health, agriculture, energy, and urban planning.
About the EMS
The European Meteorological Society is a network of 38 member societies and 30 associate members from across Europe. It is a non-profit organization that organizes annual meetings attended by hundreds of individuals from various scientific fields who present and share results from numerous studies, aiming to disseminate meteorological and climate knowledge.