Implemented by the European Commission as part of the Copernicus Programme

South Asia floods put new GloFAS river discharge forecasts to the test

Severe flooding along the cross-border Asian rivers of the Ganges and Brahmaputra in July and August this year coincided with tests of new GloFAS extended-range river discharge forecasts at ECMWF in collaboration with JRC. Recent work on GloFAS has aimed to improve the hydrological forecasts beyond 15 days as flood waves were generally underestimated at longer lead times. The new system extends the hydrological forcings, previously only based on the medium range forecast up to 15 days, with information available from ECMWF’s monthly forecasts. First assessments of the new forecasts are encouraging but more work is needed before they can be made operational as part of the Global Flood Awareness System (GloFAS).

https://www.ecmwf.int/en/about/media-centre/south-asia-floods-put-new-glofas-river-discharge-forecasts-test


By Zsoter Ervin     Sept. 5, 2017, 1:23 p.m.