Users must get climate information in varied yet simpler form: Dr Reyes

Pune: There is a need to reach users in real-time while disseminating climate forecasts, said Dr Francisco Doblas Reyes, Director of Earth Sciences Department, Barcelona Supercomputing Center. He was speaking on ‘From the Byte to the service: Trans-disciplinary climate research’ at Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) on Saturday.

Dr Reyes shared that there is a need to understand what the user wants and accordingly take our climate research to them.

“There is a need to address the broadening range of users from an operational climate service perspective. Requests for contextual climate information based on climate forecasts come from these users. Addressing this requirement requires a new paradigm for climate research,” said Dr Reyes.

“Climate information has to reach users in varied forms that are simpler to understand. For example, users and companies who are in the renewable energy sector will be impacted due to climate change. Through our initiatives, we have tried to address the specific climate predictions for them that can be beneficial. In this their needs were our priority. Similarly, in case of urban planning, we can understand what is the concern of town planners to deliver forecasts to them,” said Dr Reyes. 

He further emphasised that entry-level documentation and training, formulation of standards as well as communication among many others have become fundamentals while delivering weather products to the users. “Moreover, none of this will materialise without appropriate investment in observational networks. Also, all aspects of the model error have to be reduced to increase collaborations and research,” he said.