MARS and BOBER receive EMS Technology Achievement Award 2016

First EMS Technology Achievement Awards for significant technology achievements and innovations in the field of meteorology and earth observation

Berlin, 25 April 2016 – The European Meteorological Society has chosen MARS, the Meteorological Archival and Retrieval System developed at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, and the Distributed “real-time” Environmental Measuring System developed at the Slovenian Environment Agency within the EU project BOBER (Better Observations for Better Environmental response), to receive the EMS Technology Achievement Award 2016.

MARS, chiefly developed by Baudouin Raoult and Manuel Fuentes together with other members of the MARS team over the years, is recognised for a unique approach to meteorological data storage and retrieval technology.
The Meteorological Archival and Retrieval System is the main repository of meteorological data at ECMWF containing petabytes of operational and research data. MARS has had and continues to have a huge impact on developments in many organisations by making vast quantities of meteorological data accessible to thousands of organisations and individuals.
The main achievement associated with MARS is that this system has stood the test of time as a result of continuous development. More than thirty years after it was created, MARS remains at the cutting edge of meteorological data storage and retrieval, with a user base that extends well beyond ECMWF to other centres and the wider meteorological and climatological community.

The BOBER – Distributed “real-time” Environmental Measuring System, developed under the guidance of Bojan ?ernac, is recognised for an innovative concept of automatic stations implemented as a state of the art measuring system.
This open-source Linux based distributed “real-time” Environmental Measuring System enables a higher degree of maintenance, flexibility, portability, modularity and diagnostics. BOBER will have an impact for many years to come. Key features of the new network are distributed “real-time” data acquisition over various channels, interval data processing, local archiving, customisable data reporting and data dissemination, visualisation and alert services, full control of the network, remote software validation, optimization and upgrading, modular large-scale sensors integration, provided measurement traceability with meta data support, traceable software and documentation management, remote installation and removal of software and supported low power design.

The Awards will be presented at the Awards Session during the EMS Annual Meeting on Tuesday, 13 September 2016, in Trieste, Italy.

Note to editors:

EMS Technology Achievement Award. https://www.emetsoc.org/awards/award-category/ems-technology-achievement-award/  The European Meteorological Society (EMS) seeks to recognise achievements that are influential on developments of technologies and technical solutions in meteorology and related areas (e.g. oceanography, atmospheric chemistry and hydrology). The EMS Technology Achievement Award is granted to individuals or corporations in recognition of technological contributions associated with instrumentation and methodologies used in these areas, have advanced the methods and technologies of environmental observing and forecasting systems and demonstrated the potential to impact on the field at the European scale.

Slovenian Environment Agency SEA http://www.arso.gov.si/en/ The Slovenian Environment Agency is a body of the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning. Its mission is to monitor, analyse and forecast natural phenomena and processes in the environment, and to reduce natural threats to people and property. The tasks are performed by the national services for meteorology, hydrology and seismology, and include preserving natural resources, biodiversity and sustainable development, observing, analysing and forecasting natural phenomena and processes in the environment, as well as ensuring high-quality environmental data for all target groups, and raising the awareness of people and institutions about the environment and environmental issues.

ECMWF. www.ecmwf.int The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts is an independent intergovernmental organisation supported by 34 states. ECMWF is both a research institute and a 24/7 operational service, producing and disseminating numerical weather predictions to its Member States. This data is fully available to the national meteorological services in the Member States. The Centre also offers a catalogue of forecast data that can be purchased by businesses worldwide and other commercial customers. ECMWF was established in 1975 and now employs around 300 staff from more than 30 countries. ECMWF is based in Reading, UK.

EMS Annual Meeting and ECAC. The theme of the conference is Where atmosphere, sea and land meet: bridging between sciences, applications and stakeholders. More information on the EMS Annual Meeting and European Conference on Applied Climatology (ECAC), 12-16 September 2016, in Trieste, Italy, is available at http://www.ems2016.eu/for_the_media.html. Registration for the Media is available online at https://webforms.copernicus.org/EMS2016/press_registration.