The Air Force Meteorological Service is reorganizing. The new National Center for Aerospace Meteorology and Climatology is born.

The ceremony of taking over command and of succession took place on Tuesday, July 20. Reorganization of the CNMCA and COMet in a single entity called National Centre for Meteorology and Aerospace Climatology. The new entity will therefore retain the acronym of a historical entity for the Meteorological Service of the Armed Forces, the CNMCA, but with the “A” ending that also emphasizes the “AEROSPAZIAL” capabilities” of the Entity within the framework of the forecasts of Space Weather in outer space beyond the atmosphere. The ceremony was presided over by the Commander of the 9th^a Air Brigade, Gen. B.A. Roberto Preo.

In his speech, the outgoing Commandant, Colonel Daniele Gaboli, reviewed the most significant milestones achieved during the two years he spent in command of the Center, recalling the numerous achievements. Operational activities He carried out these tasks without interruption even in the last difficult months, in support of the Armed Forces, the Defense and the country. He thanked one by one his closest collaborators.“A Center of professionals – Colonel Gaboli emphasized – who operate daily as a team with competence, passion and determination, aware that their actions contribute to ensuring the necessary meteorological support to the conduct of air, land, naval operations and all those activities that are useful to the country and the community“.

The incoming Commander, Col. Marco Fraccaroli, in taking the floor, thanked the Superior Authorities for the trust placed in him with the new assignment, a prestigious role and one rich in responsibilities. Col. Fraccaroli asked the staff to continue to operate with the same enthusiasm and well-known dedication and effectiveness that distinguish him, “because it is your merit that you have enabled the two entities, reorganized into the new CNMCA, to achieve an enviable level of efficiency and an extremely high level of esteem, both domestically and internationally”.

General Preo, Commander of the 9th Air Brigade, emphasized the appreciation expressed at the national and international level for the work carried out daily by the two entities in the process of reorganization, a vast complex of activities that have also been guaranteed during the recent period of national difficulty. Among these, in particular, the achievement of operational capacity for’meteorological assistance to the NATO AGS activity FORCE and the continuity in providing data essential to the work of national and international meteorological communities, which the newly formed CNMCA will know how to consolidate and improve.

The National Center for Meteorological and Aerospace Climatology will be the Operational hub of the Meteorological Service of the Air Force while maintaining all the capabilities of the COMet, starting from the reception of all the observations, both terrestrial and space-based, the preparation of mathematical models to have weather forecasts and Space Weather increasingly effective, from the management of the quality of the data collected and disseminated, to the preparation of climatological data indispensable for the logistical and operational planning of the operations in OFCN.

The new CNMCA will be composed of a very comprehensive Forecast Room that will gather the experiences and tasks of the two different entities that originated them. In particular, it will range from operational meteorology in support of the Inter-Service Operational Command to aeronautical meteorology in its capacity as Meteorological Watch Office under ICAO for the entire national territory, to marine meteorology with the issuance of storm warnings and bulletins to navigators (METEOMAR), to general meteorology with weather forecasts, both at regional and national scales, to be disseminated via the web and on the national media, to the daily forecasting support to the Department of Civil Protection, as a National Competence Center and as reported in the DPCM of 27/02/2004, and, finally, to the forecasts of Space Weather for the structures of the Defense