'Centre of Excellence' opens in Reading

9 May 2001

Weather experts and mathematicians from across Britain converged on the University of Reading today for the launch of a new, technologically advanced, data centre.

Global warming is an important concern for everyone but how can we tell what will happen in the next 50 or 100 years? The new Data Assimilation Research Centre (DARC) will be able to monitor how our fragile planet is changing and predict what might happen in the future. The centre will enable researchers to collect and interpret the vast amounts of information pouring in from satellites and other instruments around the World.

Opening the centre, John Lawton, Chief Executive of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), said, " I am delighted that we can now make the best possible use of the information we have about the whole Earth system. DARC will bring together science and scientists from all over the globe. It will encourage collaboration between Nations and create a first class centre of excellence for forecasting environmental change."

William Lahoz, DARC's Scientific Co-ordinator, said " We shall be gathering observations of the atmosphere, the oceans and eventually land surfaces to improve our understanding of how natural fluctuations in the climate affect them. We shall be developing new observational techniques and looking for new methods of forecasting climatic change."

NERC is investing about £3m in the centre which, although based at the University of Reading, also incorporates research teams from Cambridge, Oxford, Edinburgh and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, and involves a strong contribution from the Met Office. The centre also has major links with a number of other institutions including the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and the Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute (KNMI).

Further information

William Lahoz
DARC
Tel: 0118 931 6981

Sue Rayner
Press Officer
University of Reading
Tel: 0118 931 8004

NERC Press Office
Natural Environment Research Council
Polaris House, North Star Avenue
Swindon, SN2 1EU
Tel: 01793 411561
Mob: 07917 557215

Notes

1. Photographs of the opening ceremony can be obtained from Sue Rayner, University of Reading - see contact details above.

2. DARC is a NERC unit co-ordinated from the University of Reading.

3. NERC leads in providing independent research and training in the environmental sciences.

'Centre of Excellence' opens in Reading

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