The list of major RC LACE events
November 1990: Meteo-France offers the NMSs of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia jointly to develop and maintain a Limited Area version of the ARPEGE model with a view to a mutually beneficial collaboration in Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) and meso-scale modelling.
Spring 1991: As one of the first decisions, LACE has evaluated the proposal that come from NWP group of Meteo-France and has proclaimed the interest to introduce LAM ALADIN as the model for the future operative application.
November 1994: The official cooperation between LACE and Meteo-France was signed.
Start of common LACE operations
Spring 1996: RC LACE Management group was established with the task to build the first operational ALADIN/LACE application and ensure the daily dissemination of NWP products to LACE members.
March-August 1996: In a form of cascade, the four applications start their cycle of pre-operational to operational status : ALADIN-MAROC and ALADIN-FRANCE (in March), ALADIN-LACE in Toulouse (in July), ALADIN-ROMANIA (in August).
July 1996: ALADIN/LACE has stated operative runs for +48h integration time at Meteo-France. ALADIN products for Central Europe domain has been disseminated via IBM Global Network link to ZAMG, Wienna, where data have been retransmitted to other LACE members (Bratislava, Budapest, Ljubljana, Prague, Zagreb)
February 1997: A quasi-operational status is given to ALADIN/SLOVENIA model.
February-March 1998: The workstation version ALADIN/HUNGARY is put into quasi-operational regime.
Start of Regional Center LACE
June 1998: ALADIN-LACE quits Toulouse and starts its new life at LACE Regional Center, CHMI, Prague at NEC SX4/3A machine.
June 1998: ALADIN-FRANCE moves to the Fujitsu VPP and became fully operational.
September 1998: ALADIN /LACE operative product has increase resolution, from 14.75 to 12.17 km horizontally and from 27 to 31 levels in the vertical.
Last quarter of 1998: The workstation versions of ALADIN/AUSTRIA, and ALADIN/SLOVAKIA were put in pre-operational mode.
Summer 1999: First set-up of ALADIN/ 3D Var has been tested.
Autumn 1999: RC LACE became the back-up center for Global model ARPEGE products.
September-November 1999: LACE operative model is one of the official models at Meso-scale Alpine Programme Intensive Operative period (MAP IOP).
May 2000: ALATNET training network project started. Partners from France, Belgium and tree LACE members: Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovenia have hosted ALADIN research and training actions in period 2000-2004.
September 2000: First RC LACE MoU has been extended till 31st December 2002
October 2000: ALADIN-CROATIA reaches a pre-operational status.
June 2001: ALADIN/LACE initial conditions are computed using the blending technique instead of a pure dynamical adaptation method. Blending 6-hour assimilation cycle is operational at RC LACE Prague, and under tests at RMI Brussels and MF, Toulouse.
Autumn 2002: New official ALADIN-NH code has been developed by team work from Toulouse, Prague and Bratislava. ALADIN-NH is based on ICI scheme with new choices of prognostic variables. ALADIN-NH has been tested as the dynamic core for meso-gama model AROME.
October 2002: Second RC LACE MoU has been signed (duration till the end 2005). Members are oriented to own operational ALADIN applications, Project dedicated to Regional Co-operation LACE (RC LACE).
Start of decentralized organization
1 January, 2003: Start of new organisation of LACE with decentralised operations and increased level of scientific coordination (based on three working groups: dynamics and coupling, physics and data assimilation).
11-12 April, 2003: ALADIN-2 is born during scientific and political meeting organised in Prague.
May, 2003: Meteo-France is disseminating LACE LBC data via RETIM2000 satellite broadcasting, fully operational at the end of 2003.
January 2004: LACE enlarged the partnership with Meteo-France and officially joined the ALADIN-2 Project (meso-scale NWP research project, aim to develop the chain of NWP models from 10 to 2.5 km mesh size) as the first group from ALADIN community.
29-30 October, 2004: Discussions on the roadmap of the ALADIN-2 and AROME projects during the ALADIN Assembly in Split. Historical resolution for answering to the HIRLAM approach on the possible code collaboration between ALADIN and HIRLAM projects.
Winter 2004: ALADIN common verification server pre-operative status. Client-server application for synoptic scale verification has been tested at ARSO, Ljubljana.
May 2005: First operative ALADIN/ 3D Var has been launched at HMS, Budapest.Assimilation cycle is based on SYNOP, TEMP, ATOVS/AMSU-A satellite data observations.
October 2005: Second RC LACE MoU has been updated (duration till the end 2007). Members enlarged the activities and established the working groups for: Physic, Dynamic and Coupling, Data Assimilation and Predictability.
October 2005: Members of ALADIN Partners decided to sign new ALADIN MoU.
December 2005: ALADIN and HIRLAM signed the cooperation agreement. LACE Steering Committee has opened the meetings for the ALADIN and HIRLAM observers.
Spring 2006: LACE operative applications started with +72 h integration. Many applications run 4 time-per-day.
June 2006: www.rclace.eu , new WEB pages has been established at SHMU, Bratislava. The comparison of major operative model products has been organized at the secured part of LACE WEB domain.
July 2006: LACE LBC data has been re-transmitted via ECMWF ECGATE server, RETIM2000 stops dissemination of LACE LBC data.
September 2006: Evaluation report of RC LACE has been issued. Evaluation Team under the leadership of Prof Peter Lynch has evaluated the LACE 10 year achievements, and has recommended the options for further LACE development.
November 2006: Romania has become the 7th member of RC LACE Project.
January 2007: First operative ALARO run starts at CHMU, Prague.
January-June 2007: LACE EPS products, based on ECMWF EPS initial conditions, has been established at ZAMG, Vienna. Products are available for all LACE partners at LACE WEB domain.
November 2007: RC LACE Members has signed the LACE Mou III that defines the LACE actions after 1st January 2008, for five-year period.
March 2008: RC LACE projects established for non-hydrostatic dynamics, data assimilation (OPLACE), ensemble forecasting (LAEF) and ALARO physics.
September 2008: Common observation pre-processing system working in Budapest and providing data to LACE partners.
February 2009: The pre-operational ALADIN LAEF is upgraded with initial conditions perturbationy using blending and breeding combination, multi physics and non-cycling surface breeding.
March 2009: Automatic monthly observation monitoring reports available from OPLACE.
March 2010: VFE available in the hydrostatic dynamics.
May 2010: Brainstorming on Advanced Concepts - on High Resolution modelling workshop held in Brač Croatia
October 2010: Operational ALARO0 in CHMI on 4.7 km and 87 levels..
December 2010: The fourth ALADIN Memorandum of Understanding is signed.
July 2011: Operational ALARO0 at DHMZ on 2 km and 37 levels.
2011: ALADIN LAEF becomes operational using 16 members with resolution 18 km on 37 levels in the vertical.
November 2012: The Fourth Memorandum of Understanding was signed in Vienna.
2013: ALADIN LAEF resolution upgrade to 11 km resolution and 45 levels in the vertical.
November-December 2013: Directors signed an agreement on the exchange of the surface measurements data among the LACE members for the OPLACE.
December 2013: ECMWF optional programme for BC decision to provide LBC data for convection permitting ENS for 06 and 18 UTC runs.
February 2014: Request from TSMS to access OPLACE as first request from a non-LACE country.
December 2014: ALADIN Assembly and HIRLAM Council decide to go for a single consortium.
April 2015: The first version of HARP available.
February 2016: The fifth ALADIN Memorandum of Understanding is signed.
February 2016: An agreement granting access to OPLACE signed with INM Tunisia.
March 2016: ModeS EHS data from KNMI to OPLACE.
December 2016: The Memorandum of Understanding extended for two more years and an additional agreement on the exchange of the surface measurements data among the LACE members for the OPLACE is signed.
March 2017: An agreement granting access to OPLACE signed with IMGW-PIB Poland.
July 2017: AROME RUC in ZAMG outperforms INCA nowcasting.
July 2018: the paper "27 Years of Regional Cooperation for Limited Area Modelling in Central Europe" published in BAMS