COST733 Final workshop

Classifications in atmospheric sciences and their

applications, present state & future directions.

Vienna, Austria

22-24. November 2010

Presentations from the final event workshop.

Background
Classifications have a long history in meteorology and climatology. In the beginning subjective classifications were used mainly for weather forecasting purposes. In the recent decades the usage of classifications has widened, especially after the advance of computers that make it possible to develop and apply automated methods and classification techniques and their applications play an important role in the field of statistical climatology.

There has however been a lack of a common reference frame for evaluation of the classifications methods and for comparison of their efficiency and skill in various applications. The increasing number of classification methods calls for a need for a unified, transferable methodology of synoptic classifications. This was the motivation for establishing the pan-European COST Action 733 “Harmonisation of weather type classifications for European Regions”. The Action will now conclude its five years program by a workshop dedicated to classifications in atmospheric sciences and their applications in Vienna 22-24 November.

At the workshop the results, achievements and conclusions of the COST action will be presented and discussed. The workshop also intends to highlight the present state and future directions of classification methods in atmospheric sciences.