The Helsinki Testbed: A mesoscale measurement, research, and service platform

Abstract

The Helsinki Testbed is an open research and quasi-operational program designed to advance observing systems and strategies, understanding of mesoscale weather phenomena, urban and regional modeling, and applications in a high-latitude coastal environment. The skeleton of the Helsinki Testbed network was established from the existing observation networks of FMI and the Finnish Road Administration. The term nowcasting refers to shortrange forecasts primarily for the next two hours. On this time scale, weather information is mainly based on observations and rather simple extrapolations of past and present weather. Real-time data were made publicly available, and intense measurements were performed during five specific monthlong measurement campaigns between August 2005 and August 2006. Stable boundary layers frequently occur in the cool season and are a challenge for adequately describing the boundary layer in numerical weather prediction (NWP) and air quality models