The Meteorological Services of Italy, Germany, Russia, Switzerland, Romania, Greece, and Poland have signed the COSMO (COnsortium for Small Scale MOdelling) agreement. This ratification was signed on behalf of Italy by our Permanent Representative to the WMO, Brigadier General Luigi De Leonibus, and will allow for continued cooperation in the maintenance and development of a high-resolution numerical weather prediction model (local scale). This model is capable of predicting not only large-scale weather disturbances but also isolated thunderstorms over areas of a few square kilometres. The operational nature of a numerical weather prediction model requires a significant quantity and quality of human resources and coordination, which is why in Europe such models are only realised through consortia of multiple national meteorological services. The characteristic of being operational implies continuous certification/verification of forecast quality and allows the model to be employed to meet the diverse needs of both general and specialised users, civilian and military. Having such a model is essential for making the best use of the forecasts provided by the European Centre, as these cover the entire globe but are at a resolution of 14 km (meaning they cannot distinguish if it is raining in two cities 20km apart, for example). The COSMO model is “hooked”according to ECMWF forecasts and allows for forecasts, for the Italian area, with a resolution of 2 to 7 km, such that they can distinguish whether it is raining in two neighbourhoods of the same city. The development of a local model that is constantly improved, verified, and keeps up with the state of the art is indeed crucial for the growing socio-economic needs of having increasingly accurate and precise forecasts, such as disaster prevention and management, and transport safety.
Participation in COSMO also respects public spending containment criteria, as it does not involve any payment of financial contributions, but only the allocation of a portion of the participants' own human and computational resources.
The resources for national participation were established through a collaboration agreement between the AM Weather Service, the regional weather services of Emilia Romagna and Piedmont, and the Italian Aerospace Research Centre (CIRA). This allowed for the assembly of adequate resources for the participation tasks and to provide the country with a reference numerical forecasting model (LAMI) for the official forecasts issued by the aforementioned services in their institutional capacities.
