WEATHER AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Harnessing weather data to support communities and businesses in tackling climate change

 

Challenge identifier: DPC8-2018

 

Proposed by

The Met Office  is a recognised global leader in weather and climate science, technology and services whose purpose is to work at the forefront of weather and climate science for protection, prosperity and well-being.

 

Background

Weather and climate change impact is one of the biggest global challenges and therefore one of the biggest opportunities to create social and economic value. From the hyper-local, such as air pollution in street canyons, to the local, such as business loss due to  flooding, to the national, such as crop failure due to adverse weather conditions to global warming, our well-being and sustainability are affected in multiple ways.

The potentials for data-driven innovations for climate change range from developing more accurate pattern recognition techniques to model our current reality, creating better predictive models to map future weather events and generating products and services that enable healthier individual and business habits to minimise the impact on people and improve well-being.

 

Description

The Met Office helps the government, the public and industry customers achieve their goals of enabling protection of lives, infrastructure and the natural world, improving well-being now and in the future; and increasing prosperity supporting UK economic growth and international competitiveness. We are looking for solutions that enable any of these aims, particularly those that look at weather impacts, pollution in cities, government collaboration or flooding.

 

Data

  • Forecast data – produced via numerical weather prediction modelling, local data, multiple parameters for around 10,000 UK sites, including air quality
  • Observations – data and images which comprises of satellite, radar, surface network of in situ instrumentation and air quality data
  • Pollen data  – The 5-day pollen forecast is created by us using the pollen count data from the previous day, layered with the weather forecast for the day in question.

More detailed information about the data can be found in our data catalogue

 

Expected outcomes

  • Data sets that offer answers and support to a variety of uses in assisting opportunities working with SMEs and startups and where weather can play a role.
  • Solutions and opportunities in using weather data to drive innovative techniques and support communities, for example in retail (supporting the value chain) or advisory services e.g. When is a good time to cycle based on a route planner?
  • Demonstrate how weather data contributes to better decision making or improved results.

 

Expected impacts

  • Evidence of successful achievement of Met Office purpose through the creation of new projects
  • Increased awareness of Met Office data and how it can be used to support and deliver new products and services.
  • Ability to reach  new business communities using weather data to support their business objectives.

 

Do you have any questions related to the DPC8-2018 challenge?