Shenwei Numerical Weather Forecasting System to Be In Use This March

National Meteorological Center (NMC) announced February 25 that Shenwei Numerical Weather Prediction System (SNWPS), which had provided a reliable basis for weather forecast during the 50th anniversary of National Day and Macao's return to the motherland, is scheduled to be put into formal use this March 1 after a year of quasi-operation, thus heralding a new era of numerical weather forecast.

According to Liu Jinda, a research fellow with NMC, this system, or the real-time numerical weather forecasting system, which takes the China-made Shenwei high-performance computer as the platform and is linked to the supporting system such as database and communication now in use, will help increase the accuracy of medium- and long-range weather prediction, extend the prediction time-effect, and promote the development of weather forecast at fixed time, place and quantity.

When were the first practical attempts at NWP?

The first successful numerical weather prediction was made in April 1950, using the ENIAC computer at Maryland's Aberdeen Proving Ground. Within several years research groups worldwide were experimenting with "weather by the numbers." The first operational weather predictions, using an IBM 701 computer, were begun in May 1955 in a joint Air Force, Navy, and Weather Bureau project.

In 1992, NWPS was first developed in European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecast and National Center for Environmental Prediction.

By PD Online Staff Yin Zhili

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