Weather forecasting

In collaboration with the Earth and Atmosphere Observation Group (GOTA) of the University of La Laguna (ULL), weather prediction models based on the WRF (Weather Research and Forecast) have been put in place. This tool is a valuable starting point for various types of analysis and forecasting across a variety of geographic locations.

Since its launch, high-resolution wind-speed forecasting has been used to make highly accurate predictions regarding the electricity generated by ITER wind parks.

These weather forecasting improvements have also led to a collaboration with the Canaries Institute of Volcanology (INVOLCAN), in support of the work it conducted at the location of the volcanic eruption on the island of Fogo (Cape Verde) between December 2014 and February 2015. For this expedition, it was of vital importance to know the direction and strength of the wind around the volcano, since the transfer of personnel to the area depended fundamentally on the movement of volcanic gases from the eruption.

A visualisation tool that generates daily videos of predicted weather parameters (rain, wind, temperature, etc) has also been launched and is published on the project’s YouTube feed.