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

lami28 stands for 'Limited Area Model Italy' which is the Italian implementation of COSMO Model, run with a 2.8 km grid interval. COSMO model in lami28 suite is run operationally once a day with a 2.8 km grid interval; it is initialised at 00 UTC with the lami7 interpolated analysis; the boundary conditions as well are provided by lami7 model; the integration domain ranges approximately from 6°E to 19°E and from 36°N to 48°N and the integration time range is 48 hours. The model is run at Cineca computing centre (http://www.cineca.it) on an IBM Power5 platform. The PICS datasets was not provided due to computer time constraints. Please note: data are available ONLY from 09/10/2007 to 30/11/2007. Grid description: DDOM: xfirst: -3.5 yfirst: -15.425 xsize: 417.0 ysize: 272.0 xinc: 0.025 yinc: 0.025 xnpole: 32.5 ynpole: -170.0

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 a 30-km parallel version of the hydrostatic BOlogna Limited Area Model (BOLAM) operational at the National Agency for Environmental Protection and Technical Services (APAT) at Rome (Italy). This version, referred as 30-km QBOLAM model, is the driving model of the 11-km QBOLAM model which is described in the dphase_qbolam11 experiment. For DPHASE project, forecast data are provided over a subdomain (refered as DDOM) of the original domain (which covers the entire Mediterranean Basin). Not all the meteorological fields selected for the experiment are provided, since some of these are not produced by the QBOLAM model. Initial and boundary conditions for a 60-h QBOLAM33 forecast are derived from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts analysis and forecast issued at 1200 UTC on the previous day. 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. DDOM: xfirst: -10.2 yfirst: 4.2 xsize: 54.0 ysize: 40.0 xinc: 0.3 yinc: 0.3 xnpole: -167.5 ynpole: 51.5

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

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

The model is the very-high resolution operational implementation of COSMO model used by the Italian Met Service. The geographic area where the model is being run covers the entire italian pensinsula and major islands. The horizontal resolution is 2.8 km (0.025deg) with 50 vertical levels. The model is routinely run on the ECMWF computing resources once a day at 00Z with hourly output. The boundary conditions (BC) are interpolated from COSMO-ME forecast fields with 1 hour frequency update. Grid description: CDOM: xfirst: -2.6 yfirst: -10.65 xsize: 139.0 ysize: 110.0 xinc: 0.025 yinc: 0.025 xnpole: -170.0 ynpole: 32.5 DDOM: xfirst: -5.0 yfirst: -14.3 xsize: 449.0 ysize: 256.0 xinc: 0.025 yinc: 0.025 xnpole: -170.0 ynpole: 32.5

72h forecast with MM5 V3.7 using - 60km x 60km resolution - 55 x 45 Grids - NOAA GFS input - Noah land-surface scheme - MRF PBL - Grell cumulus scheme - Graupel (Reisner2) explicit moisture scheme - Cloud for atmospheric radiation Grid description: DDOM: xfirst: -6.769222 yfirst: 34.404968 xsize: 55.0 ysize: 45.0 xinc: 0.2 yinc: 0.54 xnpole: 0.0 ynpole: 0.0

The forecasting chain is based on the 00 UTC, GFS forecasts at 0.5 degree resolution. The chain comprises the hydrostatic model BOLAM, which is driven directly by the global model, and the non-hydrostatic model MOLOCH (horizontal resolution 0.02 degrees), which is nested in cascade using a 1-way nesting procedure. BOLAM run starts at 00 UTC, MOLOCH is nested at 09 UTC. MOLOCH domain is smaller than official DPHASE domain. A 39-h MOLOCH forecast is provided daily. Only a sub-set of TIGGE list is provided (see DS). More information available here: http://www.isac.cnr.it/~dinamica/ Grid description: lat-lon Arakawa C grid. Rotated equidistant grid. DDOM: xfirst: -2.69 yfirst: -1.84 xsize: 340.0 ysize: 290.0 xinc: 0.02 yinc: 0.02 xnpole: -171.0 ynpole: 44.7

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