Aladin-Austria daily numerical weather forecast. It is a hydrostatical model, where the equations are solved by transformation to the spectral form. For the microphysics a Kessler-Typ scheme is used. Two runs are conducted each day at 00:00, 12:00 (72 hours forecast range). The horizontal resolution amounts to 9.6 km, on 45 pressure levels in the vertical. The domain spans Central Europe. Grid description: quadratic grid, Lambert Projection DDOM: xfirst: 2.53 yfirst: 42.94 xsize: 142.0 ysize: 102.0 xinc: 0.11 yinc: 0.07 xnpole: 0.0 ynpole: 0.0

COSMO-ME is the high-resolution operational implementation of COSMO Model at the National Meteorological Service of Italy. The model domain covers most of continental Europe and the entire Mediterranean Basin. The horizontal resolution is 7km (0.0625deg) with 40 vertical levels. The model is routinely run on the ECMWF super-computer once a day at 00Z with hourly output. The initial conditions are interpolated from the Italian Met. Service 3DVAR-FGAT data assimilation system. The boundary conditions (BC) are provided by IFS global model. Grid description: DDOM: xfirst: -5.875 yfirst: -14.312 xsize: 194.0 ysize: 112.0 xinc: 0.0625 yinc: 0.0625 xnpole: -170.0 ynpole: 32.5

Non hydrostatic model Moloch, developed at ISAC CNR and operational at ARPAL CFMI-PC. Initial and boundary conditions provided by the model chain based on bolam and initialized with the 00 UTC ECMWF run. Grid description: DDOM: xfirst: -1.99 yfirst: -1.93 xsize: 200.0 ysize: 194.0 xinc: 0.02 yinc: 0.02 xnpole: -171.0 ynpole: 45.0

72h forecast with MM5 V3.7, nested run using - mm5_60 run as input - 15km x 15km resolution - 77 x 73 Grids - Noah land-surface scheme - MRF PBL - Grell cumulus scheme - Graupel (Reisner2) explicit moisture scheme - Cloud for atmospheric radiation Grid description: DDOM: xfirst: 2.800095 yfirst: 42.172424 xsize: 76.0 ysize: 72.0 xinc: 0.02 yinc: 0.14 xnpole: 0.0 ynpole: 0.0

For Map-D-PHASE the Canadian Meterological Centre (CMC) is running the Global Environmental Multiscale (GEM) model in limited-area mode. The model is run once-daily directly from operational GEM meso-global forecast data (grid spacing of 33 km). A pair of domains are used for the project with horizontal grid spacings of 15 km and 2.5 km. This inner (high resolution) grid is tightly centered on the MAP D-PHASE project region and is initialized at 0600 UTC from the CMCGEML run. Boundary conditions for the high resolution domain are updated at 15 minute intervals from the low resolution model output. The forecast timestep is 60 seconds and data is available at 15 minute intervals. No regional analysis or data assimilation cycle is undertaken during this project. All observational data will therefore be ingested only indrectly in the regional setup through the outer grid initialization and hourly boundary updates from the meso-global model. The GEM model is a semi-implicit, semi-Lagrangian, two time-level, non-hydrostatic model that runs in a wide variety of configurations. An updated version (v3.3.0) of the GEM model is being used for the MAP D-PHASE project in preparation for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games project. This version takes advantage of recent developments designed to enhance the quality of guidance over regions of steeply-sloping orography, including the addition of a 6-category bulk microphysics scheme and time-varying orography over the initialization period. For more information on -the GEM model dynamics: see Cote et al (1998) [Mon. Wea. Rev.]. -the model physics package: contact Recherche en Prevision Numerique for the related technical document by Mailhot. -the model's microphysics scheme: see Milbrandt and Yau (2007) [Mon. Wea. Rev.]. Grid description: CDOM and DDOM:xinc 0.03 yinc:0.02 xnpole/ynpole:0.0 CDOM:xfirst:6.0 yfirst:47.0 xsize:168.0 ysize:151.0 DDOM:xfirst:2.0 yfirst:43.0 xsize:535.0 ysize:351.0

Forecast data are modelled by the parallel version of the hydrostatic BOlogna Limited Area Model (BOLAM) operational at the Italian National Agency for Environmental Protection and Technical Services in Rome (Italy). This parallel version, called QBOLAM, is employed in an operational setting as a part of the Sistema Idro-Meteo-Mare (Hydro-Meteo-Marine System; SIMM) forecasting chain, with a 11-km grid step over a domain covering the entire Mediterranean basin. The QBOLAM11 model is forced with the QBOLAM33 forecast data, neglecting the first 12 hours (spin-up time), producing a 48-h forecast starting at 0000 UTC. The QBOLAM 33 runs are instead initialized using the 1200 UCT European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts analyses and forecasts. The SIMM modelling chain includes also a 10-km WAve model (WAM) over the Mediterranean Sea, a shallow-water version of the Princeton Ocean Model (POM) for sea elevation over the Adriatic Sea and a finite element model for sea elevation in the Venice Lagoon (VL-FEM). For DPHASE project, forecast data are provided over a subdomain (referred as DDOM) of the original domain (which covers the entire Mediterranean Basin). Forecast data will be also available on the COPS domain (referred as CDOM). Not all the meteorological fields selected for the experiment are provided, since some of these are not produced by the QBOLAM model. Grid description: Please note that the westermost longitude and the southermost latitude points refer to the sub-domain chosen for MAP DPHASE. The QBOLAM original domain covers the Mediterranean Basin. CDOM: xfirst: -6.0 yfirst: 8.4 xsize: 54.0 ysize: 27.0 xinc: 0.1 yinc: 0.1 xnpole: -167.5 ynpole: 51.5 DDOM: xfirst: -9.5 yfirst: 4.4 xsize: 147.0 ysize: 67.0 xinc:0.1 yinc: 0.1 xnpole: -167.5 ynpole: 51.5

This experiment contains forecasts from the LMK (COSMO-DE) high resolution model of DWD (2.8km horizontal resoultion and 50 model levels). Model runs are started every 3h at 00, 03, 06, 09, 12, 15, 18 and 21 UTC with a forecast range of +18h. LMK (COSMO-DE) is an operational forecast model of DWD. Therefore, we adapted the output of the model as close as possible to the tigge+ list, but there are some differences; see dataset summaries. For a detailed description of the LMK (COSMO-DE) model, please contact the originator of the data. All datasets for COPS in the database have an output frequency of 15 minutes. If the variables are not provided by LMK (COSMO-DE) with an output frequency of 15 minutes then the hourly output has been linearily interpolated in time. LMK (COSMO-DE) provides only a subset of the TIGGE+ variables with an output frequency of 15 minutes. These are: Total precipitation (all types) (kg/m**2) acc_st 011 002 TPT2 Precipitation: grid-scale only, rain (kg/m**2) acc_st 102 201 SURF Precipitation: grid-scale only, snow (kg/m**2) acc_st 079 002 SURF Precipitation: grid-scale only, graupel (kg/m**2) acc_st 132 201 SURF Precipitation rate: grid-scale only, rain (kg/s/m**2) inst 100 201 SURF Precipitation rate: grid-scale only, snow (kg/s/m**2) inst 100 201 SURF Precipitation rate: grid-scale only, graupel (kg/s/m**2) inst 100 201 SURF Total column water vapour (or precipitable water) (kg/m**2) inst 054 002 SURF Total column cloud water (or cloud water) (kg/m**2) inst 076 002 SURF Total column cloud ice (or cloud ice) (kg/m**2) inst 058 002 SURF W-velocity (m/s) inst 040 002 MUVW Grid descitption: CDOM: xfirst: -2.73 yfirst: -2.927 xsize: 135.0 ysize: 118.0 xinc: 0.025 yinc: 0.025 xnpole: -170.0 ynpole: 40.0 DDOM: xfirst: -5.882 yfirst: -6.685 xsize: 441.0 ysize: 279.0 xinc: 0.025 yinc: 0.025 xnpole: -170.0 ynpole: 40.0

The horizontal grid spacing for MESONH is here 2 km. The domain size is 192 x 180 gridpoints covering the COPS area. The vertical grid has 50 levels up to 20 km with a grid length varying from 60 m close to the surface to 600 m at high altitude. The model was integrated forward for 30 hours every day starting from 00 UTC ECMWF analysis and keeping outputs every 15 minutes. More information is available at http://mesonh.aero.obs-mip.fr/mesonh/cops/ Grid description: CDOM: xfirst: 6.0 yfirst: 47.0 xsize: 251.0 ysize: 151.0 xinc: 0.02 yinc: 0.02 xnpole: 0.0 ynpole: 0.0

72h forecast with MM5 V3.7, nested run using - mm5_15 run as input - 3.75km x 3.75km resolution - 57 x 49 Grids - Noah land-surface scheme - MRF PBL - Grell cumulus scheme - Graupel (Reisner2) explicit moisture scheme - Cloud for atmospheric radiation Grid description: DDOM: xfirst: 10.207822 yfirst: 46.897579 xsize: 66.0 ysize: 48.0 xinc: 0.0005 yinc: 0.035 xnpole: 0.0 ynpole: 0.0

lami7 stands for 'Limited Area Model Italy' which is the Italian implementation of COSMO Model, run with a 7 km grid interval. COSMO model in lami7 suite is run operationally twice a day with a 7 km grid interval; it is initialised at 00 and 12 UTC with an own continuous assimilation cycle based on the nudging technique; the boundary conditions are provided by ECMWF IFS model; the integration domain ranges approximately from 0 deg E to 23 deg E and from 33 deg N to 52 deg N and the integration time range is 72 hours. The model is run at Cineca computing centre (http://www.cineca.it) on an IBM Power5 platform and in backup at ARPA-SIM (http://www.arpa.emr.it/sim/) on a Intel X86-64 Linux Cluster. Grid description: If given, the grid increments contained in the grib file have to be ignored since the precision for those parameters in GRIB1 format is not enough to represent the true value. DDOM: xfirst: -5.0 yfirst: -15.5 xsize: 186.0 ysize: 136.0 xinc: 0.0625 yinc: 0.0625 xnpole: 32.5 ynpole: -170.0