Dear Frank, could you please briefly introduce yourself? Since when are you involved in HErZ?
I have studied meteorology at Humboldt University in Berlin between 1980 and 1985. After my studies I worked as an airport weather forecaster, and later as a scientist in the field of environmental meteorology at different institutions. In 1997, I joined DWD and took over the lead of the “boundary layer processes” group at Lindenberg Meteorological Observatory. I became the DWD contact person for the use of atmospheric measurements in HErZ in 2017, and I have been since then accompanying the experimental projects and activities in HErZ. At the 2017 HErZ Annual Meeting, I offered to organize a field experiment in Lindenberg to strengthen the use of measurements in HErZ and to contribute to the networking between the different HErZ groups – this resulted in the planning of the FESSTVaL field campaign, which was then performed in 2021.
Why is HErZ important for the DWD from your perspective?
HErZ allows to anchor topics that are highly relevant for a national meteorological service in the meteorology curricula at German universities. Before HErZ was initiated, e.g., the background and methods of data assimilation were simply not taught at German universities. The presence of such themes in university education allows to get young scientists interested in DWD’s tasks and topics. There are numerous examples of former HErZ PhD students and Postdocs who later found a (permanent) position in DWD. Another aspect is the networking of DWD scientists with research groups at universities and institutes, which widens the perspective and co-operation options for DWD personnel beyond the horizon of a state agency.
What are success stories at the DWD that would not have happened without HErZ?
HErZ contributes significantly to strengthen numerical weather prediction (NWP) in DWD and to broaden the catalogue of products and services offered by DWD. This includes, e.g., the introduction of new methods and data sets to data assimilation, the development and broad use of re-analysis data sets, or the dialogue with specific user groups such as fire brigades and traffic management, and the way of communicating forecasts and warnings to the public. As said above, DWD also profits from HErZ in recruiting scientific personnel “pre-educated” and with first experiences on DWD topics. And certainly, the FESSTVaL field experiment would not have taken place without HErZ – it provided a unique high-resolution data set on the spatio-temporal structure of sub-mesoscale atmospheric phenomena, such as convective cold pools. FESSTVaL also was the blue-print for the VITAL II field campaign, which just started in the Cologne Bay region.
With which challenges in basic research could HErZ continue to support the DWD in the future?
HErZ could contribute to assess the value and suitable design of modern ground-based and satellite-based remote sensing systems for NWP by performing so-called observing system simulation experiments (OSSE’s). Modeling studies, e.g., by large-eddy simulation models, could provide guidance with respect to suitable measurement configurations of ground-based remote sensing instruments. An example of a first study in this direction is Rahlves et al. (2022). HErZ research could also contribute to more comprehensively exploit the immense value and possibilities of recent satellite missions (e.g., EarthCare, MTG Sounder), to develop and test AI tools for the quality control and analysis of experimental data, and to improve and adapt parameterizations in our NWP models to the increasing model resolution. For this, observations from the HErZ experiments (FESSTVaL, VITAL), and also the long-term data sets from the DWD observatories and networks form a valuable data base.
5. Would you like to add something?
I would be happy to continue assisting HErZ in the future, and to provide experiences and advice to early career scientists.