PRIMET - Association of Private Meteorological Services

1. PRIMET - Association of Private Meteorological Services Re-use of Meteorological Information held by the Public Sector: The European Experience Daniel Söderman, Secretary General Association of Private Meteorological Services (PRIMET) www.primet.org & daniel.soderman@kolumbus.fi PSI Group, 5th Meeting 23 April 2004, Luxembourg

2. PRIMET - Association of Private Meteorological Services PRIMET- Association of Private Meteorological Services established in November 1999 as the Association of Environmental Data Users in Europe (AEDUE) 28 corporate members in 13 European countries promotes an open data policy for Europe provides advice and strategic guidance to its members monitors closely the application by the National Meteorological Services of EU Competition Law and the EC Comfort Letter on ECOMET issued 21.10.1999

3. PRIMET - Association of Private Meteorological Services • Meteorological Data - overview • massive real-time data production on a global scale with the information updated/replaced within 0.5 – 6 hours depending on data type • internationally agreed data representation standards such as WMO/GRIB, WMO/BUFR and CREX used globally • data used in real-time meteorological forecasting and associated operations, and archived for Research and Development purposes  

4. PRIMET - Association of Private Meteorological Services • Meteorological Data - overview • surface- and satellite-based in-situ data and vertical soundings, • radar and lightning detection data, • aircraft observations, • numerical model forecasts ranging from global to local scale

5. PRIMET - Association of Private Meteorological Services EC Comfort Letter on ECOMET issued 21 Oct. 1999 (excerpt) The European Commission has given the go-ahead to Ecomet, a grouping of European national meteorological institutes set up for the joint sale of meteorological products, having satisfied itself that there is still adequate competition between the Ecomet members. The main factors on which the Commission has based its decision are The Ecomet rules ensure equal treatment of independent service providers and the commercial divisions of the national meteorological institutes with regard to access to meteorological data and the invoicing of that data. In order to guarantee fair competition with independent service providers, the Ecomet rules require the national meteorological institutes to keep analytical accounts in which their commercial activities are entered separately and which thus ensure that there is no cross-subsidisation.

6. PRIMET - Association of Private Meteorological Services ECOMET Status Table see details on www.primet.org

7. PRIMET - Association of Private Meteorological Services Condensed Facts about ECMWF Operational Forecasts • The European Centre for Medium-Range forecasts (ECMWF) is an intergovernmental centre established in 1975 by 19 European Member States for global atmospheric forecast production and associated R&D • Currently global forecasts are produced twice per day with a horizontal resolution of 0.4°-0.5° lat/long (40-50km) and 60 vertical levels • ECMWF is connected by dedicated communications links to its Member States; however, so there is only one high-speed link to each Member State, terminating at the National Meteorological Service. • The ECMWF global products are essential in the Member States, both as a foundation for general and specialised weather forecasting and as initial and boundary data for regional and limited area model forecasting.

8. PRIMET - Association of Private Meteorological Services Overview of ECMWF Data Volumes and Related Costs Volume/dayECOMET-cost/year/provider Total Operational Data Set: 32 250 MB € 50.757 million Data accessible to each NMS: 32 250 MB € 50.757 million Data actually used by NMS’s: Not known € 0.365 million1) Average volume used by PMS’s: 6 MB € 0.020 million 1) ECOMET-defined “max. fee”; however, with full and flexible data access by (only) the NMS’s, the full cost of € 50.757 million would be more appropriate Overview of Corresponding US (NOAA/NCEP) Data Volume/dayCost/year Operational Data Set: ~20 000 MB freely available Data accessible to NMS’s: ~20 000 MB $ 0 Data actually used by NMS’s: Not known $ 0 Average volume used by PMS’s: 2 700 MB $ 0

9. PRIMET - Association of Private Meteorological Services ECMWF Budgetary Cost and Expected Revenue ECMWF Budget funded by the Member States: € 40 million p.a. Projected revenue based on cost/benefit study1): € 800 - € 1000 million p.a. Actual revenue collected by the NMS’s in 2003: € 0.460 million Conclusion: The actual revenue for ECMWF data in 2003 is less than 0.5 ‰ of the originally projected revenue. 1) The original cost/benefit study performed in 1971 as part of the overall plan (Doc. COST 138/71 with Annexes), with M. Hipp (Germany) in charge concluded that the cost/benefit ratio of the Centre would be in the range 1:20 - 1:25, on the basis that the six day forecasts of the European Centre to be established would be about as good as two-day forecasts at the time (in reality this was a rather accurate prediction)

10. PRIMET - Association of Private Meteorological Services Result: Public Data Policy destroys the value and significance of European investments in R&D NCEP / USA Archives Price for example dataset 1 500 € ECMWF Archives Price for similar dataset 750 000 € On-line data annual price 0 € On-line data annual price 50 000 000 € Dedicated line to NMS Price for commercial use Restrictions of re-use Internet free download no restrictions NMS NMS NMS PMS PMS Licence to use with NMS Heavy annual price Restrictions of re-use PMS PMS PMS PMS service production: Europeans receive services based on NCEP 99,23 % , ECMWF 0,13 %

11. PRIMET - Association of Private Meteorological Services • European Weather Data Problems - Summary • Access to ECMWF data restricted intentionally by NMSs, although effective delivery channels and techniques exist • Basic price level excessive in line with other ECOMET weather data prices • Most public sector NMSs do not follow Comfort Letter requirements and Competition Law, having no separation of business units and no transparent accounting • Cross-subsidation common • Ineffective bureaucracy, costs of the present ECOMET system larger than data income • Hindrance to European R&D and innovativeness • Severely reduces Europe’s global competitiveness

12. PRIMET - Association of Private Meteorological Services European Weather Data Problems - Solution Most of the current data-related problems in Europe would be reduced or disappear altogether if an open environmental data policy be introduced, not just on paper, also in practice!