"Martin Rowley" wrote in
message ...

I wonder more though whether greater European integration will
also
force change - will not someone in the Brussels / Strasbourg
'axis' turn
eyes on the great conundrum that is the running of global models
from
several centres (EC, UKMO, MF, DWD)? Not to mention a sprinkling
of
local / regional-scale models, driven not necessarily by the
former:
some provided with boundary data from the GFS for example.

There is also the basic MET data provision, collation, analysis &
storage question. Do we need this to be split up amongst the
nation
states? Why not a central organisation funded by the EU? Is this
not
already the way the Satellite and (perhaps to a lesser extent) the
radar
observation of our continent is proceeding?

Yes, I deliberately avoided mentioning Europe, which was my
get out clause ... there'd be an awful lot of politicking, of
course,
but 20+ years should be enough for this to happen. And why
stop at Europe ... why shouldn't global models be run, and
their output marketed, on a global basis?

Philip Eden