KNMI (institute)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

, nativename_a = , nativename_r = , logo = , logo_width = , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = FS IMG 8907 KNMI.jpg , picture_width = 250px , picture_caption = KNMI headquarters in
De Bilt De Bilt () is a municipality and town in the province of Utrecht, Netherlands. It had a population of in . De Bilt houses the headquarters of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI). It is the ancestral home and namesake for the pro ...
, formed = , preceding1 = , preceding2 = , dissolved = , superseding = , jurisdiction = , headquarters =
De Bilt De Bilt () is a municipality and town in the province of Utrecht, Netherlands. It had a population of in . De Bilt houses the headquarters of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI). It is the ancestral home and namesake for the pro ...
,
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
, coordinates = , motto = , employees = , budget = , prime_minister_name = , minister1_name = , minister1_pfo = , minister2_name = , minister2_pfo = , deputyminister1_name = Steven van Weyenberg , deputyminister1_pfo = , deputyminister2_name = , deputyminister2_pfo = , chief1_name = , chief1_position = , chief2_name = , chief2_position = , chief3_name = , chief3_position = , chief4_name = , chief4_position = , chief5_name = , chief5_position = , chief6_name = , director_general = , agency_type = , chief6_position = , chief7_name = , chief7_position = , chief8_name = , chief8_position = , chief9_name = , chief9_position = , parent_department =
Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management , type = Department , logo = Ministerie van Infrastructuur en Waterstaat Logo.png , logo_width = 250x250px , logo_alt = Logo of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management , image = Rijksgeb ...
, parent_agency = , child1_agency = , child2_agency = , keydocument1 = , website = , footnotes = , map = , map_width = , map_caption = The Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute ( nl, Koninklijk Nederlands Meteorologisch Instituut, ; KNMI) is the
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
national
weather forecasting Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology forecasting, to predict the conditions of the Earth's atmosphere, atmosphere for a given location and time. People have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia a ...
service, which has its headquarters in
De Bilt De Bilt () is a municipality and town in the province of Utrecht, Netherlands. It had a population of in . De Bilt houses the headquarters of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI). It is the ancestral home and namesake for the pro ...
, in the
province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...
of
Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...
, central
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
. The primary tasks of KNMI are weather forecasting, monitoring of climate changes and monitoring seismic activity. KNMI is also the national research and information centre for
climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologic ...
,
climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
and
seismology Seismology (; from Ancient Greek σεισμός (''seismós'') meaning "earthquake" and -λογία (''-logía'') meaning "study of") is the scientific study of earthquakes and the propagation of elastic waves through the Earth or through other ...
.


History

KNMI was established by royal decree of
King William III William III (William Henry; ; 4 November 16508 March 1702), also widely known as William of Orange, was the sovereign Prince of Orange from birth, Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel in the Dutch Republic from the ...
on 21 January 1854 under the title "Royal Meteorological Observatory". Professor
C. H. D. Buys Ballot Christophorus Henricus Diedericus Buys Ballot (; October 10, 1817 – February 3, 1890) was a Dutch chemist and meteorologist after whom Buys Ballot's law and the Buys Ballot table are named. He was first chairman of the International Meteo ...
was appointed as the first Director. The year before Professor Ballot had moved the Utrecht University Observatory to the decommissioned fort at Sonnenborgh. It was only later, in 1897, that the headquarters of the KNMI moved to the Koelenberg estate in
De Bilt De Bilt () is a municipality and town in the province of Utrecht, Netherlands. It had a population of in . De Bilt houses the headquarters of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI). It is the ancestral home and namesake for the pro ...
. The "Royal Meteorological Observatory" originally had two divisions, the land branch under Dr. Frederik Wilhelm Christiaan Krecke and the marine branch under navy Lt. Marin H. Jansen. Like
Robert FitzRoy Vice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy (5 July 1805 – 30 April 1865) was an English officer of the Royal Navy and a scientist. He achieved lasting fame as the captain of during Charles Darwin's famous voyage, FitzRoy's second expedition to Tierra de ...
who founded the
Meteorological Office The Meteorological Office, abbreviated as the Met Office, is the United Kingdom's national weather service. It is an executive agency and trading fund of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and is led by CEO Penelope ...
in Britain the same year, Ballot was disenchanted with the non-scientific weather reports found in European newspapers at the time. Like the Met Office, the KNMI also pioneered daily weather predictions, which he called by a new combination "weervoorspelling" (weather prognostication).


Research at KNMI

Applied research at KNMI is focused on three areas: * Research aimed at improving the quality, usefulness and accessibility of meteorological and oceanographical data in support of operational weather forecasting and other applications of such data. * Climate-related research on oceanography; atmospheric boundary layer processes, clouds and radiation; the chemical composition of the
atmosphere An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A s ...
(e.g. ozone); climate variability research; the analysis of climate, climate variability and climatic change; modelling support and policy support to the Dutch Government with respect to climate and climatic change. * Seismological research as well as monitoring of seismic activity (
earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...
s).


KNMI's development of atmospheric dispersion models

KNMI's applied research also encompasses the development and operational use of atmospheric dispersion models. Whenever a disaster occurs within
Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
which causes the emission of
toxic Toxicity is the degree to which a chemical substance or a particular mixture of substances can damage an organism. Toxicity can refer to the effect on a whole organism, such as an animal, bacterium, or plant, as well as the effect on a subst ...
gases or
radioactive material A radionuclide (radioactive nuclide, radioisotope or radioactive isotope) is a nuclide that has excess nuclear energy, making it unstable. This excess energy can be used in one of three ways: emitted from the nucleus as gamma radiation; transfer ...
into the atmosphere, it is of utmost importance to quickly determine where the atmospheric plume of toxic material is being transported by the prevailing winds and other meteorological factors. At such times, KNMI activates a special calamity service. For this purpose, a group of seven meteorologists is constantly on call day or night. KNMI's role in supplying information during emergencies is included in municipal and provincial disaster management plans. Civil services, fire departments and the police can be provided with weather and other relevant information directly by the meteorologist on duty, through dedicated telephone connections. KNMI has available two atmospheric dispersion models for use by their calamity service: *
PUFF Puff may refer to: Science and technology * Puff, a small quantity of gas or smoke in the air ** Puff, a light gust of wind#Gustiness, wind ** Exhalation ** Inhalation * Puff model, volcanic ash tracking model developed at the University of Alaska ...
- In cooperation with the
Netherlands National Institute for Public Health and the Environment The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment ( nl, Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu or simply RIVM) is a Dutch research institute that is an independent agency of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. RIVM perfo ...
(Dutch: ''Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieuhygiene'' or simply ''RIVM''), KNMI has developed the dispersion model PUFF. It has been designed to calculate the dispersion of
air pollution Air pollution is the contamination of air due to the presence of substances in the atmosphere that are harmful to the health of humans and other living beings, or cause damage to the climate or to materials. There are many different types ...
on European scales. The model was originally tested by using measurements of the dispersion of radioactivity caused by the accident in the nuclear power plant of
Chernobyl Chernobyl ( , ; russian: Чернобыль, ) or Chornobyl ( uk, Чорнобиль, ) is a partially abandoned city in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, situated in the Vyshhorod Raion of northern Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. Chernobyl is about no ...
in 1986. A few years later, in 1994, a dedicated dispersion experiment called ETEX (European Tracer EXperiment) was carried out, which also provided useful data for further testing of PUFF. * CALM - CALM is a CALamity Model designed for the calculation of air pollution dispersion on small spatial scales, within the Netherlands. The
algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific Computational problem, problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specificat ...
s and
parameter A parameter (), generally, is any characteristic that can help in defining or classifying a particular system (meaning an event, project, object, situation, etc.). That is, a parameter is an element of a system that is useful, or critical, when ...
s contained in the CALM model are practically identical to that of the PUFF model. However, the meteorological input can only be supplied manually in CALM. The user provides both observed and predicted values for wind velocity at the 10 meter height level, the atmospheric stability classification and the mixing height. After the model calculations have been performed, a map is created and displayed with the derived trajectories of the pollution plume and an indication of how and where the cloud will disperse.


Storm naming

In 2019 KNMI decided to join the western storm naming group to help awareness of the danger of storms, the first named storm was
Storm Ciara Storm Ciara was a powerful and long-lived extratropical cyclone that was the first of a pair of European windstorms to affect the United Kingdom and Ireland at peak intensity less than a week apart in early February 2020, followed by Storm Denn ...
on 9 February 2020.


See also

*
Atmospheric dispersion modeling Atmospheric dispersion modeling is the mathematical simulation of how air pollutants disperse in the ambient atmosphere. It is performed with computer programs that include algorithms to solve the mathematical equations that govern the pollutant ...
*
List of atmospheric dispersion models Atmospheric dispersion models are computer programs that use mathematical algorithms to simulate how pollutants in the ambient atmosphere disperse and, in some cases, how they react in the atmosphere. US Environmental Protection Agency models Man ...
*
National Center for Atmospheric Research The US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR ) is a US federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) managed by the nonprofit University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and funded by the National Science Foundatio ...
* NERI, the National Environmental Research Institute of Denmark * NILU, the Norwegian Institute for Air Research *
Roadway air dispersion modeling Roadway air dispersion modeling is the study of air pollutant transport from a roadway or other linear emitter. Computer models are required to conduct this analysis, because of the complex variables involved, including vehicle emissions, vehicle ...
*
Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute The Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute ( sv, Sveriges meteorologiska och hydrologiska institut, abbreviated SMHI) is a Government agency in Sweden and operates under the Ministry of the Environment. SMHI has expertise within the ...
*
TA Luft Germany has an air pollution control regulation titled "Technical Instructions on Air Quality Control" (''Technische Anleitung zur Reinhaltung der Luft'') and commonly referred to as the ''TA Luft''. The first version of the ''TA Luft'' was establ ...
*
UK Atmospheric Dispersion Modelling Liaison Committee The Atmospheric Dispersion Modelling Liaison Committee (ADMLC) is composed of representatives from government departments, agencies (predominantly but not exclusively from the UK) and private consultancies. The ADMLC's main aim is to review current ...
*
UK Dispersion Modelling Bureau __NOTOC__ This page is out of date and should be considered an historic reference only The UK Dispersion Modelling Bureau was part of the Met Office, the UK's national weather and meteorological service. The meteorologists in the bureau are among ...
*
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) is a US nonprofit consortium of more than 100 colleges and universities providing research and training in the atmospheric and related sciences. UCAR manages the National Center for Atmosph ...


References


External links


KNMI website (in Dutch)KNMI atmospheric dispersion modelsRIVM website (in English)
{{authority control Atmospheric dispersion modeling De Bilt Governmental meteorological agencies in Europe Independent government agencies of the Netherlands Organisations based in the Netherlands with royal patronage Organisations based in Utrecht (province) Research institutes in the Netherlands