On 4-5 May 2023, the Management Group visited the Tunisian NMS in the context of an ACCORD/MG visit to a Member Institute. The visit was prepared by the PM, the CSS and the Tunisian LTM Haythem Belghrissi. The program of the discussions on 4 May is outlined hereafter:
- Opening by Ahmed Hmem, DG of INM, Hatem Baccour, DRDM at INM and Claude Fischer, ACCORD PM
- Tour de table
- Numerical weather prediction at INM: presentation by Haythem Haythem BELGHRISSI, LTM-Tunisia
- organizational plan, internal and external relations, on-going projects
- suites, code and HPC
- Local Team System Representatives (LTSR)
- the use of the Special Project SPFRACCO at the CEP
- the use of github
- Research and development activities :
- microphysics by Hajer Dhouioui
- data assimilation by Wafa Khalfaoui
- other projects by Rahma Ben Romdhane: NETTUNIT Italy-Tunisia (PIRC International Development funded program), air and marine pollution models (bilateral cooperation with Meteo-France), ...
- Users’ feedback:
- feedback from users at INM: Forecasters feedback about AROME model by Bacem Nahali, Head of the general forecast service
- the organization of user feedback in ACCORD: see PM slides
- Discussions: contribution of INM, proposal of theses to members of the NWP team, financing of scientific
scientific stays... - A.O.B: the events to come in 2023, the ACCORD calendar of workshops and and meetings: : see PM slides.
A few headline information from the above discussions is sumarized in the "Accounting of the ACCORD/MG visit to the Tunisian NMS" document.
The ACCORD/MG and the INM NWP team met again on 5 May in order to debrief the discussions of the day before and make a final wrap-up. There was a shared feeling that this visit had been beneficial for both sides, for INM staff to have the opportunity to present their plans, their overall activity and meet in person a large fraction of the ACCORD/MG, and for the MG to meet the NWP team and learn about INM.
The ACCORD/MG then met in the premises of INM the rest of the day, in order to hold an MG meeting devoted to the preparation of parts of the Rolling Work Plan 2024.
Throughout the two days, the ACCORD/MG appreciated the high quality of the presentations and the discussions with the team in Tunis, as well as the excellent hosting by INM.
