Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute
Dutch: Koninklijk Nederlands Meteorologisch Instituut | |
KNMI headquarters in De Bilt | |
Agency overview | |
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Formed | 31 January 1854 |
Headquarters | De Bilt, Netherlands |
Deputy Minister responsible | |
Parent department | Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management |
Website | www |
The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (Dutch: Koninklijk Nederlands Meteorologisch Instituut, pronounced [ˈkoːnɪŋklək ˈneːdərlɑnts ˌmeːteːoːroːˈloːɣis ˌɪnstiˈtyt]; KNMI) is the Dutch national weather forecasting service, which has its headquarters in De Bilt, in the province of Utrecht, central Netherlands.
The primary tasks of KNMI are weather forecasting, monitoring of climate changes and monitoring seismic activity. KNMI is also the national research and information centre for climate, climate change and seismology.
History
KNMI was established by royal decree of King William III on 21 January 1854 under the title "Royal Meteorological Observatory". Professor C. H. D. Buys Ballot was appointed as the first Director.[1] The year before Professor Ballot had moved the Utrecht University Observatory to the decommissioned fort at Sonnenborgh. It was only later, in 1897, that the headquarters of the KNMI moved to the Koelenberg estate in De Bilt.
The "Royal Meteorological Observatory" originally had two divisions, the land branch under Dr. Frederik Wilhelm Christiaan Krecke and the marine branch under navy Lt. Marin H. Jansen.[1]
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Research at KNMI
Applied research at KNMI is focused on three areas:[2]
- Research aimed at improving the quality, usefulness and accessibility of meteorological and oceanographical data in support of operational weather forecasting and other applications of such data.
- Climate-related research on oceanography; atmosphere(e.g. ozone); climate variability research; the analysis of climate, climate variability and climatic change; modelling support and policy support to the Dutch Government with respect to climate and climatic change.
- Seismological research as well as monitoring of seismic activity (earthquakes).
KNMI's development of atmospheric dispersion models
KNMI's applied research also encompasses the development and operational use of atmospheric dispersion models.[3][4]
Whenever a disaster occurs within
KNMI has available two atmospheric dispersion models for use by their calamity service:
- Netherlands National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (Dutch: Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieuhygiene or simply RIVM), KNMI has developed the dispersion model PUFF. It has been designed to calculate the dispersion of air pollution on European scales. The model was originally tested by using measurements of the dispersion of radioactivity caused by the accident in the nuclear power plant of Chernobylin 1986. A few years later, in 1994, a dedicated dispersion experiment called ETEX (European Tracer EXperiment) was carried out, which also provided useful data for further testing of PUFF.
- CALM - CALM is a CALamity Model designed for the calculation of air pollution dispersion on small spatial scales, within the Netherlands. The atmospheric stability classificationand the mixing height. After the model calculations have been performed, a map is created and displayed with the derived trajectories of the pollution plume and an indication of how and where the cloud will disperse.
Storm naming
In 2019 KNMI decided to join the
See also
- Atmospheric dispersion modeling
- List of atmospheric dispersion models
- National Center for Atmospheric Research
- NERI, the National Environmental Research Institute of Denmark
- NILU, the Norwegian Institute for Air Research
- Roadway air dispersion modeling
- Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute
- TA Luft
- UK Atmospheric Dispersion Modelling Liaison Committee
- UK Dispersion Modelling Bureau
- University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
References
- ^ a b Maury, Matthew Fontaine (1858). "Account of Lt. Van Gough". Explanations and sailing directions to accompany the Wind and current charts. Washington D.C.: United States Naval Observatory. pp. 376–377.
- ^ KNMI Research Programme, 2003-2007 Archived 2006-09-28 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Naamgeving van stormen". knmi. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
52°06′05″N 5°10′42″E / 52.10139°N 5.17833°E