The potential value of storm prediction research carried out at the University of Reading has been recognised by a number of industry sectors, including the marine, insurance and oil and gas. However, the question of how to interpret and utilise this information presents a major barrier. One of the major difficulties is that these industry sectors are only used to handling static information and do not know how to handle time-varying environmental data. In order to encourage these business sectors to make the required investments to overcome this barrier, it is necessary to illustrate the potential benefits of storm prediction information in a business sector that is already familiar with handling time-varying environmental data. The marine sector has such experience and is also an industry sector critical to the UK. This project will be carried out in collaboration with British Marine Technology Group Ltd ARGOSS (BMT ARGOSS, http://www.bmtargoss.com/), a technical consulting company, specialist provider and leading innovator in the supply of marine environmental information. They are already able to handle time varying data, making them an ideal partner for this project. ESSC has a longstanding relationship with the BMT Group, who have provided a research sponsorship program over the past 9 years. The maritime sector interacts with other sectors, including insurance and oil and gas, so a successful implementation of the project deliverables into BMT's systems will demonstrate the benefits to other industry sectors. Accurate forecast information about storms is vital for decision making at sea. Activities ranging from ship routing to resource exploration require such information to optimise operations and to prevent economic and human losses. For example Hurricane Katrina and other hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico have led to repeated disruption of the oil and gas industries located there, and similar disruptions are faced regularly by operators elsewhere in the world. Ship routing systems aim to avoid dangerous weather as well as finding routes that are optimal in terms of time and fuel costs. This project aims to develop methods and tools for extracting forecast information about storms from forecast data that can be used for decision making at sea. In recent years ESSC has developed extensive expertise in analysing the ability of forecast models to predict storms. This research has particularly focused on a type forecasting system known as an Ensemble Prediction System (EPS). An EPS involves running a model multiple times from slightly different initial states to generate an ensemble of forecasts providing information about the uncertainty/probability of forecasts of severe weather events. The storm tracking approach provides useful storm focused forecast information, which it is not possible to obtain from traditional data analysis approaches used at operational weather centres. This KE proposal will enable BMT ARGOSS to utilise such novel information, to improve and extend the services they can offer their clients and thereby improve decision making at sea. In addition to storm prediction information, wind and wave Earth observation (EO) data from satellites are essential to marine operations. ESSC is currently proposing the development of an Applications program at the new International Space Innovation Centre (ISIC) based at Harwell and is thus in an excellent position to bring together EO data from multiple satellites necessary for marine operations. This proposal will exploit this new program by incorporating observational data into the forecast tools developed. The forecast tools developed in this proposal will be demonstrated to other potential end users in addition to those in the marine sector. Once a tool has been developed with the marine sector (who's information systems already use time varying data) it will be easier to penetrate the insurance and oil and gas sectors.

Our environment has a major influence on all aspects of human endeavour ranging from the mundane, such as deciding whether to cycle or take the bus to work, to the exceptional, such as coping with the ever more damaging effects of extreme natural phenomena (tropical storms, inundations, tsunamis, droughts, etc.). In addition, climate change is one of the most pressing challenges that confront humanity today. What was once viewed as something that might happen in the future is now part of daily life. Because most impacts of climate variability and change occur through extreme weather events and spells, the two issues of weather and climate are closely interlinked. We rely on science and technology to provide the means of managing the complex intricacies of the environment and to meet the pressing challenges of climate change. Mathematics plays a central role in this massive undertaking as it provides the fundamental basis of the theory and modelling of weather, oceans and climate. However the nature of the mathematical challenges is changing and the need for scientists trained in risk and uncertainty is growing rapidly. Meeting these needs can only be achieved by training an entirely new generation of scientists to meet the multi-faceted challenges, with all their complex inter-dependencies. These scientists will need extraordinarily broad training in several scientific areas, including geophysical fluid dynamics, scientific computing, statistics, data assimilation and partial differential equations. Above all, they must understand the mathematics that unifies them. The alignment of Imperial College's Mathematics Department and Grantham Institute for Climate Change with Reading University's Departments of Mathematics and Statistics and of Meteorology has put these two institutions into a unique position to offer a CDT focussing on the priority area: Mathematical Sciences for Weather, Ocean and Climate, as a 50-50 joint venture. We propose to bring together, as academic supervisors and stakeholders in the centre, more than 60 world-leading researchers with expertise in a wide spectrum of areas that comprise the mathematical foundation as well as the frontier application areas. The central aim of the proposal is to build a strong cohort of young scientists whose backgrounds will span the breadth of the mathematical sciences from statistics, PDEs and dynamical systems, scientific computing, data analysis, and stochastic processes including relevant application areas from weather, oceans and climate. These young scientists must also acquire problem-specific knowledge through an array of elective courses and supervisory expertise offered by the two institutions and the external partners. A core component of the cohort training will be a ten-week programme hosted by the Met Office in Exeter which will include lectures given by world-leading scientists and research internships with Met Office staff, tackling real-world projects by teamwork. Key partners to the proposed CDT include major international players in research and operational forecasting for weather, oceans, and climate, including the UK Met Office, the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts, the German DWD, the National Centre for Atmospheric Science and the National Centre for Earth Observation. The EPSRC contribution to the Centre will be heavily leveraged with institutional and external partners, whose financial commitments are estimated to cover 65% of the total costs. The proposal is also in alignment with the global initiative Mathematics of the Planet Earth 2013 which involves scientific societies, universities, institutes and organizations all over the world aiming to learn more about the challenges faced by our planet and to increase the research effort on these issues.