ECMWF Newsletter

The new radiation-transfer scheme RRTM is described in the article on page 2.The new scheme includes the representation of sixteen spectral bands, compared with six bands in the previous operational scheme.This allows improvements in the spectral description of the radiative properties of both the earth’s surface and the clouds.Tests of the impact of the scheme indicate improved anomaly correlations, particularly in the Southern Hemisphere. On page 9 Jean Bidlot outlines the products that are now available from the ECMWF wave-model forecasts. A variety of parameters are output, both from a global version of the model having a grid length of 55km and from a limited area wave model covering the North Atlantic and the seas around Europe, which has a 28km grid. Articles from recent issues of the Newsletter are now available from the ECMWF Web Site as pdf files (http:// www.ecmwf.int/pressroom/newsletter/index.html). The index of past Newsletter articles printed at the end of each issue has now been reorganised to be consistent with the index on the Web Site.Articles that are available on the Web are indicated by asterisks. Peter White