The workshop on Wind Profiles and Mesoscale Data Assimilation was held at the Faculty of mathematics and physics in Ljubljana 19-20 September 2016. The occasion was a conclusion of the ESA-funded project “Mesoscale wind profiles and numerical weather prediction” that addressed the potential of wind profiles from the ADM-Aeolus satellite. The workshop also discussed some open issues in mesoscale data assimilation for NWP, especially the role of wind observations and balanced initial conditions on mesoscale as well as the initialization of gravity waves. The workshop final discussion was published both online as a white paper and recently in a newsletter.
B.01 Organiser of a scientific meeting
COBISS.SI-ID: 358569The workshop associated with the normal mode function representation of the atmosphere and its application in numerical weather prediction and climate research was organized by N.Zagar at the National center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado from 26-28 August 2015. It gathered about 40 people from whole world including some pioneers in the field of dynamical meteorology. Workshop was a combination of invited talks, contributed talks and poster presentations. Also, the workshop included the presentation of the MODES software, a tool for the analysis of modern NWP and climate model outputs to complement the broad other ideas of modes of atmospheric variability. In this sense the workshop served to report results of the European Research Council project ERC StG MODES which has been led and successfully completed by N. Žagar at our Faculty. Workshop's webpage and all the lectures are accessible at https://www2.cgd.ucar.edu/sections/amp/events/20150826 .
B.01 Organiser of a scientific meeting
COBISS.SI-ID: 342697Astronomy Picture of the Day (apod.gsfc.nasa.gov) is a unique daily source of professional information about events in the Universe and in the atmosphere of the Earth. For over a decade members of the programme team have been making voluntary daily contributions by making Slovenian translation of this page (apod.fmf.uni-lj.si) which includes an explanatory text with many relevant links. Reader feedback suggest a large and overwhelmingly positive response to this effort. The role of this page goes beyond enjoyment of beautiful pictures with a clear explanatory text. The topics are often new, so we are faced with the challenge of being the first to present a Slovenian translation of a given professional term. The task can be complicated, as Slovenian language does not tolerate joining common terms and giving them a new meaning, which is often the case in English. Space limitations, on the other hand, prevent us from resorting to a descriptive translation. So the programme group frequently gets caught in lively discussions about the proposed terminological solutions. We do believe that this effort is contributing to an expansion of Slovenian professional vocabulary. In 2016 we made our emerging professional English-Slovene astronomical dictionary freely accessible. Its 2000 entries can be browsed at http://www.termania.net/?searchIn=Linked&ld=191 .
F.18 Transfer of new know-how to direct users (seminars, fora, conferences)
COBISS.SI-ID: 430465The program team is responsible for the university level education in meteorology and astrophysics in Slovenia. This sums up to some 20 courses at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics and at other faculties of the University of Ljubljana. Considering that these lectures are given by just 4 teachers and that many courses, despite their optional nature, have over 50 students, it is clear that our program team has an exceptional teaching load. The program team is very active in science outreach and in communicating scientific results to the general public. We do: (1) our own daily weather forecast calculated with increased spatial resolution and a detailed forecast of air quality, both published on our webpage meteo.fmf.uni-lj.si/) (2) daily astronomical news digest (www.portalvvesolje.si/) and translation of astronomy picture of the day (apod.fmf.uni-lj.si), (3) every second Thursday in the month a public lecture for the general public is prepared within a lecture series entitled "Evenings at the observatory" (astro.fmf.uni-lj.si), (4) open days and nights on the occasions of season changes at the Astronomical observatory Golovec (astro.fmf.uni-lj.si), (5) preparation and organization of the monthly radio broadcast "Frequency X" with an astronomical topic, which airs on the 2nd programme of the national radio (Val 202, www.val202.si/frekvencax/), (6) contribution to educational and news programmes of the national TV (Ugriznimo znanost, Dobra ura, Odmevi, 24 ur, etc.), (7) translation and publication of astronomical and meteorological learning materials and professional publications and of the yearly astronomical ephemeris Naše nebo (Our sky), (8) contribution to organization of competitions in astronomy knowledge for primary and secondary school pupils, as well as training/leadership of the Slovenian team of secondary school pupils for the astronomical olympiad, (9) approx. 10-times a year we prepare a lecture on selected topics which is part of the night sky observing event at the Vogel skiing ground and at the headquarters of the Triglav national park in Bohinj, (9) organisation of various events for outstanding secondary school pupils (mafia weekend at UL-FMF, research days at Bled, etc.).
D.10 Educational activities
Nedjeljka Žagar has been (during the entire reporting period) an associate editor of the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society (ISSN: 1477 870X), which is the leading meteorological research journal in Europe. Its impact factor is 3.252, according to ISI Journal Citation Reports © Ranking: 2014 this puts it as the 16th highest ranking journal among 77 scientific journals from the fields of meteorology and atmosphere sciences. A list of editors can be accessed at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1477 - 870X/homepage/EditorialBoard.html.
C.04 Editorial board of an international magazine
COBISS.SI-ID: 26227200