USE OF THE FUJITSU VPP700 FOR WEATHER FORECASTING AT ECMWF

On 18 September 1996 the operation al numerical weather forecasting ac tivities of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (EC MWF) were transferred to run on a Fujitsu VPP700/46 computer system, a fter many years of use of shared-memory Gray systems. The range of cur rent forecasting activities is described, and further information is g iven on the computational design and performance of the atmospheric fo recast model, and on the operation of the VPP700. Developments which w ill utilize planned enhancements of the Fujitsu computer system at ECM WF are summarized.