Over the past few years researchers at Met Éireann have produced a climate reanalysis dataset, called MÉRA – Met Éireann Reanalysis, for the period 1981-2017 for an area covering Ireland, the UK and northern France. Climate reanalyses give a numerical description of the recent climate and are produced by combining models with weather observations. They contain estimates of atmospheric parameters such as air temperature, pressure and wind at different heights above the ground, and surface parameters such as precipitation, soil moisture content and temperatures, and sea-surface temperature. Climate reanalysis data can be used in a wide range of interesting applications from insurance risk assessment to potato blight to renewable energy planning to air quality applications and much more. These data have uses in any application that requires climate observation data.
The MÉRA dataset was launched in May 2017 and has over 100 users in Ireland, the U.K., Germany, the Netherlands, Canada and the U.S. On May 17th of this year we held the first workshop for users of the data. The workshop consisted of 15 very interesting talks – short papers by most of the presenters can be found here – inside you can read about the use of MÉRA in an app for potato and tomato blight, analysing energy demand vs weather in Ireland and much more.
We will hold a second workshop on Thursday May 2nd 2019 – if you are interested in attending, please e-mail us at mera AT met.ie.
Some of the delegates at the first MÉRA workshop held in May 2018 at the Teagasc building in the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin.