In the Regional Meteorological Telecommunication Network (RMTN), the RSMC La Réunion is a hub connected with several other meteorological services by a number of reliable and, for 50%of them, high speed links. Functions of telecommunication are fully automated, and only one controller is requested to supervise the system.
Thanks to a TCP/IP 4Mbits/s link via Toulouse, the RSMC is connected to the two Regional Telecommunication Centres of Eastern and Southern Africa (Nairobi and Pretoria).
This connection with Toulouse, secured with a 512 kbits/s (Numeris) link, is a real umbilical cord for the RSMC. Thanks to this, the Centre can access to all the databases of Météo-France and in particular to the outputs of the French models: ARPEGE, ALADIN/Réunion (limited area model covering most of the RSMC area of responsibility), as well as the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and United-Kingdom Met Office (UKMO) global models outputs.
A server for meteorological messages and bulletins, operational since 1991, provides the NMSs of the region the possibility of directly accessing to the data and bulletins collected or produced by the RSMC, and also the information (for instance, received from Toulouse) that is not available through the programs of the RMTN.
The Centre resorts also to Internet, especially to exchange data at the regional level where this network is a good alternative to traditional links. What ever is the use; via the FTP with Seychelles, Comoros or Madagascar or via e-mail with Mozambique, South Africa or Djibouti, Internet has indeed become an essential support to communicate for the RSMC.
Furthermore, the RSMC has a specialized server with restricted access, where all the meteorological data available on its SYNERGIE servers can be found.
Finally, for the countries who have not Internet access yet, or in the aim to provide a cheap backup possibility, the RSMC, in collaboration with Worldspace, has accepted to put some of its elaborated products (plotting, models outputs, cyclone warnings) on the RANET server.
The software used for the processing of these imageries has been developed by the Météo-France Space Meteorology Centre in Lannion.
At the end of 1993, a 10 cm Doppler radar has been installed on a site in upper Saint-Denis, at about 700 meters elevation and 12 km away from the RSMC. This radar is operated by remote control. Raw data are processed on the site and the different products (PPI, CAPPI,...) are transmitted to the Centre via a 9600 b/s specialized line. After a service disruption following the blown off of this radar by intense tropical cyclone DINA end of January 2002, a new radar replaced the former one and reestablished full normal radar operation at the end of 2002. The software has been fully changed at the end of 2008.
The view of the radar is totally clear from the east to the north and the west-south-west, sectors of origin of more than 95% of tropical cyclones approaching La Réunion. It permits nearly continuous coverage of tropical cyclones within about 350/400 km of the coast and, therefore, effective monitoring of those that threaten the island. This results in more accurate forecasts of the final track and impact in terms of strong winds and heavy rain, and finally in better warnings and better timing in the final phase of the alert process for the island.
Moreover this radar opens up very interesting possibilities for Research and Development on the effects that the orography can have on the core structure of landfalling tropical cyclones and, more generally speaking, combining radar observations with data collected in real-time by the network of about 25 automatic stations implemented on the island, on the effects the orography has on heavy rain distribution (La Réunion holds all the rainfall world records between 12 hours and 15 days, all these records being associated with the passage of tropical cyclones over or in vicinity of the island).
Input of these radar data within the very high resolution non-hydrostatical numerical model MESO-NH offers one of the best option for Research and at more or less long range in an operational perspective.
”SYNERGIE” (same meaning as SYNERGY in English) is the name of the workstation system and software developed by Météo-France and used by all the forecasters of Météo-France to synthesize the more and more abundant meteorological information and then to elaborate the documents resulting of their cross-analyses. SYNERGIE is an abbreviation of ”Système Numérisé d'Exploitation Rationnelle et de Gestion Interactive et Evolutive” ( Digitalized System of Rational Exploitation and of Interactive and Upgradeable Handling) of the meteorological data.
Thanks to this tool, the forecaster can build a conceptual model of the real state of the atmosphere by displaying on his workstation all the available meteorological information (conventional data, NWP products, satellite and radar imagery...). To be noted is the fact that processing and storage of all the numerical data collected through the local imagery acquisition systems (radar, satellite...) or directly received from Toulouse via TRANSMET (messages switch system) are simultaneously done on two servers, one hot backup of the other. Quick and secured access is then possible in real-time from any "client" workstation.
SYNERGIE offers a wide range of possibilities: displaying all the available meteorological information with possibility of overlaying objective analyses, vertical profiles, animation, bulletin composition like TEMSI and ANASYG/PRESYG, etc...). Furthermore, a specific module dedicated to the expertise and the monitoring of the tropical systems ("SYNERGIE-Cyclones") is now integrated within the version 4.0 of the software. The RSMC has used its competence, experience and expertise to validate this module and keeps on participating to its improvement.
Among the different functionalities of this specific module dedicated to the analysis and forecasting of the tropical systems, exist the automated visualization of the forecast tracks from the numerical models and the associated processing (re-localization, consensus, etc...)
Finally, one of the most important possibilities of SYNERGIE is to re-display past interesting meteorological situations like the cyclone CONNIE (January 2000), studied by the trainees during the former international workshops organized at La Réunion.
Since the end of 2004, thanks to a project funded by the European Commission (FED/IOC) to improve the transmission and the processing of the meteorological information, SYNERGIE has been implemented in every NMS neighbours of the RSMC. The exchange of the expertise has thence been greatly facilitated and has incidentally given more sense to the regional cooperation around the RSMC.