Weather Research and Forecasting: Current Status and Future Directions
A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Meteorology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2026 | Viewed by 157
Special Issue Editor
Interests: numerical modeling; climate change; environmental services (includes weather, water and climate services); applications of meteorology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Weather data is increasingly being required for decision-making at the community scale. Historically, the meteorological observation network was based primarily on in situ instrumentation. This network was designed to provide the data necessary for predicting synoptic-scale weather features. The stations that form the network are spaced about 500 km apart, and soundings are made twice daily.
A more closely spaced grid network of surface stations is needed to provide information at the spatial and temporal scales that are useful for the prediction of the meso- (smaller weather systems ranging from a horizontal scale of five to several hundred kilometres) and micro-features (short-lived atmospheric phenomena smaller than mesoscale, about 1 km or less; time scale: very short-lived, often minutes or hours) of the atmosphere, which is required at the community scale. However, these data are not adequate to meet the needs of meteorologists, essentially because of the lack of information on the vertical structure of the atmosphere. Studies of the costs and other problems associated with a simple enlargement of the existing radiosonde network have shown that such a solution is not viable. Consequently, attention has turned to developing and deploying new technology, such as satellite- and ground-based remote sensing systems, among others, to fill this void.
While the deployment of synoptic-scale forecasting is possible in most parts of the world, there is still room for improvement, especially in the tropics. Additionally, a future research direction comprises collecting information at the community scale (meso and microscale) and information about not only what the forecast will be but what the forecast will do (impact-based forecasting) to enhance decision-making for improved local governance.
The topics of interest for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Data (surface and upper air observations);
- Remote sensing (satellite, radar, etc.);
- Convection-permitting modelling;
- Ensemble prediction;
- Unified modelling/seamless prediction;
- Data assimilation;
- Parametrization;
- Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI);
- Evaluation and verification;
- Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) and related forecasting infrastructure;
- Impact-based forecasting.
This Special Issue welcomes submissions about the status of and future trends in various aspects of weather research and forecasting relating to the provision of weather information and also its contribution to climate resilience.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Benjamin Lantei Lamptey
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- unified modelling
- seamless prediction
- machine learning
- artificial intelligence
- convection permitting models
- automatic weather stations
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