The WMO Regional Training Centre (RTC) Indonesia, hosted by the Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics of the Republic of Indonesia (BMKG), launched the online part of a Blended Group Training on Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) on 20 May. The online theory-focused first phase of the two-part course ran until 2 July. The follow-up on-campus phase in the RTC premises is scheduled in 2022, conditions permitting. The on-campus part will consolidate the theoretical knowledge and conduct the practical curricula, which are difficult to instruct online.
The course attracted 38 NMHS staff whose scientific work relates to NWP and who desired to improve their understanding of high-resolution NWP, including model configuration, physical parameterization, operating environment, post-processing techniques, visualization of model output, verification techniques and applications. The course explores the NWP systems of Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) models and Consortium for Small-scale Modelling (COSMO) and emphasizes simulations of mesoscale weather systems. The course is expected to enhance national capacity on the application of NWP models for the tropics in operational weather services.
The participants represented 14 WMO Members, 10 from the South-West Pacific (WMO Region V), 2 from Asia (WMO Region II) and 2 from Africa (WMO Region I). Through this training, BMKG contributes to supporting regional capacity development programmes in NWP implementation for South-West Pacific Members. Similar blended NWP courses are planned in RTC Algeria for African Francophone Members; in RTC Egypt for African and Asian Anglophone and Arabic speaking Members; and in RTC India also for Asian Members. In addition, courses for South America (WMO Region III) and North America, Central America and the Caribbean (WMO Region IV) are still in the planning phase with Regional Offices and RTCs.
