Mesan, an operational mesoscale analysis system

A system for mesoscale analyses of selected variables has been developed. The analysed parameters are of general interest in operational weather forecasting, but normally not available from NWP systems, or available, but with a significantly lower quality than achieved by the mesoscale analysis system. A supplementary objective is to produce initial information to be used for now-casting techniques. Examples of parameters are precipitation, temperature, humidity, visibility, wind and clouds. The basis of the analysis system is the optimal interpolation technique (OI). The use of observations from automatic stations, radars and satellites have been investigated. The investigation indicates that a dense network of ordinary precipitation gauge measurements can produce more accurate analyses than more elaborate systems like radar that suffers from anomalous echoes and other errors.