Dear User,

You may, or may not, be aware of upcoming changes from ECMWF.

A new version of the ECMWF model that includes a major resolution upgrade has been tested extensively and the planned implementation date is Tuesday 26 January 2010.

Detailed general and technical information on the implications of the resolution change for users of ECMWF data is available at:

http://www.ecmwf.int/products/changes/horizontal_resolution_2009/

The main points that affect FAST Trader are:

• Deterministic forecast horizontal resolution is increased from 25 km to 16 km.

• Ensemble resolutions are increased for the first 10 days to 32km and the extension beyond day 10 to 63 km.

The impact of the new cycle on the performance of the deterministic forecast system has been tested on more than 360 cases in total. Ensemble spread is in general unchanged and the ensemble-mean errors are consistently lower, resulting in a better tuned spread in terms of temperatures.

The new model cycle will be used throughout the ECMWF forecast suites.

The METRA forecast, being a multi model forecast that uses ECMWF within its calculations will benefit from these improvements and itself show greater levels of accuracy.

Regards,

Metra and the FAST Trader team.