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

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

- preoperational model (planned to become operational in 2008) - configuration: Runge Kutta time integration scheme (dt=20sek); multi layer soil module; no parameterized deep convection; 60 levels; prognostic TKE, rain, snow and graupel - model runs are started at 00UTC 03UTC 09UTC 12UTc and 18UTC. Forecast range is 24h, except 09 and 18 run ranging upt to 30h. To complete the timeseries, dummy text files have been generated for 06UTC, 15UTC, 21UTC. Missing time steps are filled with dummy text files as well. Note: From 12th of July 2007 on, +24h forecasts are produced for 06, 15 and 21 UTC as well. Grid description: CDOM: xfirst: -2.76 yfirst: -0.02 xsize: 174.0 ysize: 141.0 xinc: 0.02 yinc: 0.02 xnpole: -170.0 ynpole: 43.0 DDOM: xfirst: -5.5 yfirst: -3.8 xsize: 500.0 ysize: 330.0 xinc: 0.02 yinc: 0.02 xnpole: -170.0 ynpole: 43.0

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

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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

Model system ALADIN, 18km horizontal resolution, 37 levels in vertical, LOPEZ microphysics etc. Ensemble system with 16 members. 2 runs per day at 00, 12 UTC, Initial perturbation: Downscaling of ECMWF Singular vector perturbation Lateral boundary perturbation: Coupling with the ECMWF EPS system Domain of products: Latitude: 38.53---54.98, 0.15 deg grid space, 110 grids; Longitude: 2.55---31.8, 0.15 deg. grid space, 196 grids Every 3 hours, from 0 to 48 hours forecast. Grid description: quadratic grid, it is the Lambert Projection DDOM: xfirst: 2.55 yfirst: 42.95 xsize: 105.0 ysize: 49.0 xinc: 0.15 yinc: 0.15 xnpole: 0.0 ynpole: 0.0

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 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

Accurate initialization of the water vapor field is important for NWP. With recent advances in Global Positioning System (GPS) atmospheric remote sensing, ground-based GPS receivers have become an important instrument that can provide high resolution water vapor measurements operationally at low cost with an accuracy of a few millimeters. The system can operate in all weather conditions. During the COPS campaign, a dense network of GPS receivers was installed. This data has been assimilated in real-time into the MM5 4DVAR system to improve quantitative precipitation forecasts and process understanding. Operational forecasts initialized with 4DVAR and corresponding CONTROL forecasts, initialized only by the ECMWF forecast,ran the whole COPS/D-PHASE period to provide a basis for future statistical investigations. This experiment contains only the innermost domain (2km) of the forecast initialized with the operational ECMWF forecast only (CONTROL). The corresponding 4DVAR forecast can be found as experiment dphase_mm5_2_4d. Assimilation run: - 18 km horizontal resolution - 36 level up tp 100 hPa - 64x70 grid points - MM5 3.4 (4DVAR version) - Kuo convection scheme - MRF PBL scheme - Simple radiation - Warm cloud microphysics - 3 hour assimilation window Free forecast run: only innermost 2km domain (CDOM) was archived) - Triple 2-way nested 24h forecast (18, 6, 2 km resolution) - 36 level up to 100 hPa - 64x70 points (18 km), 106x109 points (6 km), 169x184 points (2 km) - MM5 3.7.4 - Kain Fritsch 2 cumulus (no parameterization in the 2 km domain) - Reisner2 cloud microphysics - RRTM LW + Dudhia SW radiation - MRF PBL scheme - 5 layer soil model Note: here the datasets differ in time resolution (DDOM:1h, CDOM 15min) not in region. Grid description:"CDOM"+"DDOM":xinc/yinc:2.0 xnpole/ynpole:0.0 xfirst:6.0205 yfirst:47.0167 xsize:184.0 ysize:169.0