The Center of Excellence for the integration of remote sensing TEchniques and numerical Modelling for the Prediction of Severe weather (CETEMPS) was born in spring of 2001 from a selection of Italian Ministry for Education and Research (MIUR) regarding a call for Centres of Excellence on soil stability.
The primary activities of the center are related to meteorological and hydrological observation and modelling. In the frame of weather forecast CETEMPS is among the first European centres (and unique in Italy) exploiting satellite data assimilation for high-resolution precipitation forecast. In the frame of water ground flow forecast it develops an operational model that predict the state of rivers.
CETEMPS is currently widening its sphere of interests with observations and modelling of atmospheric composition both for climate and regional pollution studies.
The instrumentation
CETEMPS mantains a remarkable network of instruments and databases for ground and satellite observations: a primary station for Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) products download, a meteorological radar, a wind profiler radar, an acoustic radar, optical radars, a radiosounding and ozonosounding station, weather station, laser induced fluorescence detector, radiometers and sun-photometers. Moreover, CETEMPS holds a computational centre with different multi-processor architectures where simulations and data-processing of the Centre are carried out.
Collaborations
CETEMPS developed an intense collaboration with the Department of Civil Protection (DPC) and the corresponding offices of Abruzzi region. It was elected a competence centre of DPC and is part of the technical committee of the national radar network. Moreover, the Abruzzi region delegated CETEMPS to the provision of weather forecast, the management of radars of the Regional Functional Centre, and the education of personnel.
Other collaborations at national level are with the Italian Space Agency (ASI) that selected CETEMPS in a pilot project on air quality forecast (QUITSAT), in a project for flood prediction (Nowcasting) and meteorological assistance for stratospheric balloon deployment. At the international level, CETEMPS takes to several project with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Science Foundation (ESF).