Ensemble-based regional reanalysis system for Central Europe: Development framework and outlook

The development of regional reanalyses aims at the provision of high-resolution data sets that are suitable for climate applications and climate services. As the desired high-resolution information can barely be provided by either synoptic or remote sensing observation data, a growing interest in high-quality regional reanalyses is recognisable. Particular demand arises from the renewable energy sector. Further quality gains are expected by using an ensemble approach, e.g. by making available the desired uncertainty information when moving towards higher resolution. 
Within the framework of the Innovation Programme for applied Researches and Developments (IAFE) at Germany's national meteorological service (DWD) our project aims to develop and evaluate an operational ensemble-based regional reanalysis system incorporating the current NWP model of DWD (ICON). One final goal of the project is to provide a basic framework for user-oriented verification.  
We first present the Basic Cycling Environment (BACY) being mainly characterized by its modularity, robustness, user-friendlyness as well as its high complexity. Thus, our future reanalysis system will be a certain BACY version with "frozen" specifications. To assess BACY specifications such as model resolution, number of ensemble members, domain size and choice of output variables NWP simulations will be performed and first simulation results will be presented.