Meteorological Research and Innovations

The goal is clear: High-precision meteorology. In order to continue as a front-runner in the future, UBIMET continuously invests in research and development. UBIMET has successfully completed over 30 international research projects.

UBIMET aims at setting new standards in meteorology. With continuous research and development, ongoing optimization of forecasting tools and the development of new products, UBIMET has assumed a leading role in the field of meteorological services. Day-to-day work is inspired and shaped by the demands of highly precise meteorology.

UBIMET is a “front-runner”

UBIMET received recognition as a “front-runner” by the Austrian Society for Research Promotion for its “UBlalert” project. The “Front-Runner Program” supports internationally active companies that operate in a highly competitive market environment and shape the competition as leaders in innovation.

International research partners

UBIMET invests over 25% of its revenue in research and development every year. Partnerships with international research institutes, renowned universities and industrial enterprises cement its innovative leadership and aid in expanding it. The track record: Since 2006, UBIMET has implemented 35 projects in in the fields of intelligent systems, energy, mobility and secure societies. In this context, UBIMET developed concepts for energy-efficient buildings, precise alerts for disaster management, and weather models for innovative agriculture.

INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS

  • GREeNvaluation (until 2022): The aim of this project is the development of an application for the visualization and balancing of green infrastructure (eg. cooling effect and CO2 reduction). This should make the benefits of greening in urban areas more tangible and understandable, and enables better cost-benefit assessments.
  • EDI (until 2021): European Data Incubator is an incubation programme run by 20 partners across Europe.
  • SatcomWeather: Real-time attenuation data for satellite communication. The amount of water vapour in segments of the atmosphere provides valuable input for modelling and forecasting precipitation.
  • HYDRA: Hybrid downscaling and reanalysis of meteorological fields to any type of topography improving forecasting quality at the same time.
  • PROKLIM: Optimising automated indoor climate systems using weather forecasts.
  • CITI-SENSE: The project aimed at developing a sensor-based Citizens’ Observatory Community to improve quality of life regarding air quality in cities.
  • PROKLIM+: Using model predictive control to optimise solar electricity consumption with enhanced building energy efficiency.

ENERGY

  • BD4NRG (until 2023): The vision of Big Data for Energy (BD4NRG) is to unlock and exploit the economic potential of big data to enable improved, more efficient and reliable operation for all stakeholders in the energy value chain.
  • SNOWi (until 2021): SNOWi combines the strengths of satellite observations, in-situ measurements and numerical weather models to develop a comprehensive snow monitoring and forecasting system that informs hydropower companies about the amount of water bound in the snow and the time of snow melt for optimised water and energy production management.
  • REgions (until 2022): REgions will analyse how Renewable Energy Sources (RES) can support the stabilisation of the energy system by improving traditional Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) to include also regional and interregional services and further improve the participation on the markets.
  • PrognoNetz (until 2021): This project aims to develop smart, self-learning meteorological networks, which precisely model the cooling effect of weather on overhead power lines in order to increase their transmission capacity by monitoring them in real time.
  • SHAR-Q: The SHAR-Q project will establish a bottom-up collaboration framework that enables sharing of storage and renewable capacities in neighbouring distributed energy ecosystems.
  • ProAktiv Netz: investigates how renewable energy can best be integrated into real-time grid operation taking maintenance activities as well as possible disruptions into consideration.
  • ProMoSol: Forecast and analysis of global solar radiation to determine energy production potential in a small grid environment

MOBILITY

  • DroneRiskAustria (until 2022): Development of an online platform for the planning of drone flights. In addition to evaluating the likelihood of a collision with an aircraft (aerial risk) or an object on the ground (ground risk), the weather risk is essential for the operational planning of drones according to the relevant EU directive. The task of UBIMET in the project is to investigate the integration of weather data into the risk assessment of a drone mission.
  • MeteoValue-live (until 2022): Optimization of the disposition and route planning of freight and long-distance bus companies, taking into account forecast bad weather conditions and parking space availability.
  • MeteoValue: Conception of value-added services to warn against disturbances of the traffic flow and hazards of the traffic infrastructure due to meteorological events.
  • EmporA 2: This project identifies obstacles for using electromobility to enable use of electromobility in public transport
  • Wetter & Verkehr (Weather & Transport): Improving predicting traffic including forecast by identifying the effect of weather on traffic and traffic demand.

SECURE SOCIETIES

  • AgRAIN (until 2022): development and implementation of concrete measures to adapt agriculture in Burkina Faso to the effects of climate change through (i) the innovative detection and short-range forecasting of precipitation via commercial mobile communications (CMLs); and (ii) novel rainwater retention technologies for complementary irrigation using the precipitation information for optimal operation.
  • MADISMA: Developing a demonstrator to optimise disaster management, building on knowledge and experience from the feasibility study INDYCO.
  • UBIalert: This project strives to protect human lives and assets from severe weather events caused by climate change worldwide.
  • Opti-Alert: Enhancing the efficiency of alerting systems through personalised, culturally sensitive multi-channel communication.
  • SITUMET: Developing a new generation of meteorological services based on innovative, regionally specific forecasting modules.
  • INDUS: Developing an early warning system for individualised, dynamic severe weather warnings based on nowcasting.