Vienna Enhanced Resolution Analysis (VERA)

An objective analysis system has been developed at the department, called VERA (Vienna Enhanced Resolution Analysis). This tool consists of a quality control module, a downscaling module and a spatialisation module. The unique feature of the system is the functuioning of the system even without any first guess information. Hence it is optimally suited for (prognostic) model validation. It is presently used operationally at the Aeronautical Met Service in Austria (AustroControl), MeteoSwiss and at the Canadian Meteorological Service (Environment Canada) for the Olympic Winter Games.

The system has been applied to three-hourly surface data in Europe for the last 35 years, which permits a series of interesting evaluation of the regional climate and its trends. There are plans to further refine the methodology and to apply it to other mountainous areas of the world in the future.

• Dorninger, M., S. Schneider, R. Steinacker, 2008: On the interpolation of precipitation data over complex terrain. Meteor Atmos Phys, 101, 175-189
• Steinacker, R., M. Ratheiser, B. Bica, B. Chimani, M. Dorninger, W. Gepp, C. Lotteraner, S. Schneider, S. Tschannett, 2006: Downscaling Meteorological information over complex terrain with the fingerprint technique by using a priori knowledge, Mon Wea Rev, 134