Dear members of the weather radar community
The 11th European Conference on Radar in Meteorology and Hydrology known by the abbreviation ERAD was scheduled to take place in Switzerland in September 2020. The deadline of the abstract submission fell in the midst of the rapid spreading of Covid-19, a moment of high uncertainty and confusion around the globe. Many countries were under a lockdown. Nobody knew how the pandemic would evolve and what would happen with ERAD 2020. We were expecting to receive 50, maybe 100 submissions from the most dauntless ERAD warriors and faithful supporters. Never would we have expected to go beyond 200. We were absolutely overwhelmed when the number of submissions reached 292. Alongside the many scientists who submitted an abstract and were ready to defy the virus, we also got many requests from the radar industry to book a booth in the exhibition hall. This was a strong signal from the community that kept us going with the planning despite the obvious risks posed by the spreading of the corona virus. You wanted to attend ERAD in Switzerland and we were committed to do our best to organize a memorable event.
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We went through all the abstracts with the support of the program committee and created oral sessions with a selection of many promising papers. Fortunately, the abstract review process was only marginally affected by the virus. However, everything else was becoming increasingly complicated because of Covid-19 and we had to continuously rearrange our plans ... On June 19 we decided to postpone the 11th edition of ERAD to 2022. It was time to take a decision, and we had no other choice given the situation of the pandemic around the world.
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The conference has been postponed to 2022 ... but the attempt to organize ERAD in 2020 left a heritage. The collection of abstracts, which you hold in your hands, is an impressive testimony to the scientific depth, the diversity and the link to practical applications of the ongoing activities in the field of radar meteorology and hydrology. ERAD is known for its tradition to build a bridge between academia, industry and the national meteorological and hydrological services. It brings together the universities' scientific excellence, the manufacturers' knowledge about building radars and the operational perspective from the national services and users. This makes it a perfect breeding ground for exchange and innovation as demonstrated in the previous editions of ERAD.
We would like to thank you all for the positive signal you sent us in a moment of highest uncertainty, like a well-maintained radar, which never stops sending signals even in the midst of a most unpredictable storm!
See you in Switzerland in 2022!
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Urs Germann and Alexis Berne
BOOK OF ABSTRACTS 2020
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE 2020
ALEXIS BERNE
EPFL, Switzerland, chair of ERAD 2020
URS GERMANN
MeteoSwiss, Switzerland, chair of ERAD 2020
FRANZISKA KELLER
MeteoSwiss, Switzerland
JESSICA CURATO
MeteoSwiss, Switzerland
MARCO GABELLA
MeteoSwiss, Switzerland
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GIONATA GHIGGI - SUPPORT CREW
EPFL, Switzerland
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DANIELE NERINI - SUPPORT CREW
MeteoSwiss, Switzerland
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RACHEL VON DACH - SUPPORT CREW
MeteoSwiss, Switzerland
PROGRAMME COMMITTEE 2020
ANNAKAISA VON LERBER
Finnish Meteorological Institute, Finland
(chair of EUMETNET-OPERA)
AURORA BELL
Bureau of Meteorology, Australia (chair of ERAD 2010)
DANIEL MICHELSON
Environment and Climate Change Canada, Canada
(chair of ERAD 2004, chair of WMO IPET-OWR)
DANIEL SEMPERE TORRES
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain (chair of ERAD 2006)
DMITRI MOISSEEV
University of Helsinki, Finland
EFRAT MORIN
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
FRANK MARZANO
Sapienza Università di Roma, Italy
HIDDE LEIJNSE
KNMI, Netherlands (chair of ERAD 2018)
KURTULUS ÖZTÜRK
Turkish State Meteorological Service, Turkey (chair of ERAD 2016)
LUCA BALDINI
ISAC-CNR, Italy
MARTIN HAGEN
DLR, Germany (chair of ERAD 2014)
REMKO UIJLENHOET
Wageningen University, Netherlands (chair of ERAD 2018)
TOSHIO IGUCHI
National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Japan (chair of AMS Radar 2019)