10 - FMI

The Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) is a research and service agency under the Ministry of Transport and Communications. FMI has a staff of approximately 700 employees, half of them working in the Research and Development division. FMI produces weather and marine forecasts and services for the needs of safety, transport, the economy and citizens. It acquires and maintains reliable information on the physical state and chemical composition of the atmosphere and of the seas, as well as their impacts on the various sectors of Finnish society and internationally. FMI performs and advances research on the atmosphere, physical oceanography, polar areas and the near-space as well as many other related issues. It combines its know-how into consultancy and development services in Finland and abroad, notably regarding issues pertaining to the environment, the transport sectors, and generic weather related security. 

Role in the project

FMI leads WP2 in INTAROS. In WP1, FMI will assess the impact of assimilating new in situ and atmospheric profiles on the forecast of near-surface parameters in the Arctic, and will contribute to development of a long-term implementation strategy for the integrated Arctic observing system in collaboration with ENVRIplus. The planned activities in WP2 include assessment and exploitation of the in situ atmospheric composition and cloud data belonging to main infrastructures/networks in the Arctic, contribution to the assessment and integration of in situ snow observations, and evaluation and exploitation of existing and emerging remote sensing snow products. FMI will also collaborate with MISU and SMHI to perform the gap analysis of the atmospheric observational network from the point of view of weather prediction, and to assess the quality of satellite hyperspectral infrared sensors and satellite-based cloud products. FMI will contribute to WP3 by providing specialized instruments/infrastructures for the measurement and calibration of snow, surface spectral/broadband albedo, cloud properties, atmospheric composition and snow/sea ice thickness. Through its involvement in the ENVRIplus program, FMI will ensure that the integration of the Arctic Observing System in WP5 will be done in coordination with ENVRIplus activity. In WP6, the integrated data will be applied by FMI to improve the satellite based sea ice concentration and thickness products applied by Operational Ice Services in the Arctic, and to improve the forecast of extreme precipitation events in Svalbard, providing better forcing for avalanche forecast models. FMI will take part on the education and dissemination effort of INTAROS (WP7) by contributing to the organization of two summer schools (in Svalbard and in the FMI Arctic Centre of Sodankylä), and of two focused conference sessions.