Dear Frank, could you please briefly introduce yourself? Since when have you been involved in HErZ?
I have been leading the Hydrometeorology Department at the DWD for 3 years and was previously responsible for national climate monitoring for more than 10 years. Since the founding of HErZ, I have also served as the expert contact person for the area of "climate monitoring". In this role, I support HErZ projects with the integration of their findings within DWD activities and ensure that we pursue common goals.
Why is HErZ important for the DWD from your perspective?
In HErZ, basic research is conducted at universities in close cooperation with the DWD. New research questions and innovative approaches are tested together and, if successful, adopted by the DWD to improve the quality of weather forecasts and climate services. HErZ has an impact both on enhancing the quality of its products and services and on the long-term innovation capability and recruitment of personnel at the DWD. We have already filled positions several times with graduate students who wrote their theses within HErZ. Overall, HErZ provides the DWD with a strong network of experts at universities and research institutions who collaborate closely with DWD experts to develop improved products for society.
What are success stories at the DWD that would not have happened without HErZ?
At the start of HErZ, the DWD carried out climate monitoring primarily based on traditional observations. The universities of Bonn and Cologne then proposed to develop regional reanalyses based on the DWD-COSMO model in order to describe the long-term development of the atmosphere even in areas where there are no direct observations. In the meantime, such reanalyses have become an important part of our climate services, allowing us to answer key questions from our partners, for example in the field of offshore wind energy.
With which challenges in basic research could HErZ continue to support the DWD in the future?
We have already seen a shift in focus over the course of events so far. After it was fundamentally demonstrated that high-quality reanalyses can be created, the focus now also includes their application, for example with many open questions in the field of energy meteorology. The Energy Economics Institute at the University of Cologne is a new HErZ partner since 2023, and this expertise complements the activities of the DWD very well. It is currently also evident that reanalyses provide a crucial foundation for training AI models, which hold promising potential for improving weather forecasting. The quality of the reanalyses continues to be closely linked to advances in data assimilation and the use of as many data sources as possible, which is also being pursued in various HErZ subprojects.
Further reading on these topics: