Job: Consultant - Upgrade Meteorological retrival software

Location: Vienna
Deadline: Wednesday, 06 November 2013

Assignment:

Background: The Commission seeks a consultant to upgrade software ECMWFDATA retrieving meteorological data from the archives of the European Centre for Medium-Ranged Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). ECMWF meteorological fields constitute a crucial input to the atmospheric transport model FLEXPART which ensures daily production of the Source Receptor Sensitivity (SRS) fields. The ECMWF shall imminently transition to LINUX operational environment on the computer system used by the CTBTO for the operational retrievals of the meteorological fields. Consequently, the software needs to be adapted to this new operational environment. In addition, CTBTO has recently identified some enhancements which need to be introduced into the ECMWFDATA software in order to fully benefit from the ECMWF Integrated Forecast System (IFS) native resolution. The consultancy work shall result in providing a new version of ECMWFDATA with the required enhancements. Phase 1

• Adapt the ECMWFDATA software (both version 4 and 5) to operate on the LINUX ecgate at the ECMWF and with the Ecaccess software version 4 installed at CTBTO.

Phase 2

• Upgrade software constituents to enable retrieval with 1/1000 degree precision ; and to
• Investigate and propose solutions to the problem of an automatic shift of a received regional domain. Two examples of the circumstances where such a shift occurs have been identified. 2.Investigate and propose solutions to the problem of an automatic shift of a received regional domain. Two examples of the circumstances where such a shift occurs have been identified: (a) Negative longitude values and (b) upper LHS corner of domain not divisible by an increment of horizontal resolution ;
• Fix the problem of modulo division by negative numbers ;
• Introduce additional parameter allowing the user specification of vertical variable;
• Enable retrieval for long and flexible time periods for the operational script

Phase 3

• Update software documentation so that it reflects the changes made to ECMWFDATA software;
• Provide examples of software configuration for regional domains;
• Perform tests of the operational and on-demand scripts on LINUX ecgate with varzing resolutions (global 1.0, 0.5; regional 0.125)

Additional tasks:

• Participation in a kick-off meeting (1day)
• Wrap-meeting for delivery and acceptance testing. (2 days)

Qualifications:

1. Expert knowledge of ECMWFDATA software package. Example scripts available at http://transport.nilu.no/flexpart;
2. Experience in efficient numerical programming in FORTRAN, as well as shell scripting;
3. Experience in numerical modeling;
4. Advanced university degree in meteorology, physics of the atmosphere or applied mathematics with sound understanding of atmospheric phenomena;
5. Proven analytical skills;
6. Oral and written communication skills in English.

Competencies:

Conscientious and efficient in meeting commitments, observing deadlines and achieving results and be able to work independently with minimum supervision. Very good skills in communicating with people from different backgrounds and demonstrated ability to work in a multicultural environment.

More Info and Application