Modelo:

Actualizado:

4 times per day, from 08:00, 14:00, 20:00, and 00:00 UTC

Tiempo medio de Greenwich:

12:00 UTC = 06:00 MGZ

Resolutión:

0.1° x 0.1° (Europa)
0.5° x 0.5°

Parámetro:

Cloud cover (low,middle,high,total)

Descripción:

Clouds are vertically divided into three levels: low, middle, and high. Each level is defined by the range of levels at which each type of clouds typically appears.

Level	Polar Region	Temperate Region	Tropical Region
High Clouds	10,000-25,000 ft (3-8 km)	16,500-40,000 ft (5-13 km)	20,000-60,000 ft (6-18 km)
Middle Clouds	6,500-13,000 ft (2-4 km)	6,500-23,000 ft (2-7 km)	6,500-25,000 ft (2-8 km)
Low Clouds	Surface-6,500 ft (0-2 km)	Surface-6,500 ft (0-2 km)	Surface-6,500 ft (0-2 km)

The types of clouds are:

High clouds: Cirrus (Ci), Cirrocumulus (Cc), and Cirrostratus (Cs). They are typically thin and white in appearance, but can appear in a magnificent array of colors when the sun is low on the horizon.

Middle clouds: Altocumulus (Ac), Altostratus (As). They are composed primarily of water droplets, however, they can also be composed of ice crystals when temperatures are low enough.

Low clouds: Cumulus (Cu), Stratocumulus (Sc), Stratus (St), and Cumulonimbus (Cb) are low clouds composed of water droplets.

Arpège:

Arpège
ARPEGE uses a set of primitive equations with a triangular spectral truncation on the horizontal, with a variable horizontal resolution, with a finite elements representation on the vertical and a “sigma-pressure” hybrid vertical coordinate. It also utilizes a temporal two time level semi-implicit semi-lagrangian scheme. The horizontal resolution of the ARPEGE model is around 7.5km over France and 37km over the Antipodes. It has 105 vertical levels, with the first level at 10m above the surface and an upper level at around 70km. Its time step is of 360 seconds.

NWP:

Numerical weather prediction uses current weather conditions as input into mathematical models of the atmosphere to predict the weather. Although the first efforts to accomplish this were done in the 1920s, it wasn't until the advent of the computer and computer simulation that it was feasible to do in real-time. Manipulating the huge datasets and performing the complex calculations necessary to do this on a resolution fine enough to make the results useful requires the use of some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world. A number of forecast models, both global and regional in scale, are run to help create forecasts for nations worldwide. Use of model ensemble forecasts helps to define the forecast uncertainty and extend weather forecasting farther into the future than would otherwise be possible.

Wikipedia, Numerical weather prediction, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numerical_weather_prediction(as of Feb. 9, 2010, 20:50 UTC).