USE OF THE FUJITSU VPP700 FOR WEATHER FORECASTING AT ECMWF

On 18 September 1996 the operational numerical weather forecasting act ivities of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECM WF) were transferred to run on a Fujitsu VPP700/46 computer system, af ter many years of use of shared-memory Gray systems. The range of curr ent forecasting activities is described, and further information is gi ven on the computational design and performance of the atmospheric for ecast model, and on the operation of the VPP700. Developments which wi ll utilize planned enhancements of the Fujitsu computer system at ECMW F are summarized.