Hail Suppression Agency

Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry

Project BeRTISS

Hail Suppression Agency (HSA) is a partner in project “BalkanMed real time severe weather service” (BeRTISS) which is realized by Interreg - Balkan-Mediterranean 2014 – 2020.
The other partners who will work in “BeRTISS” project are:

 

  • Frederick Research Center – Leader Partner (Cyprus);
  • Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, Physics Faculty, Department “Meteorology and Geophysics” (Bulgaria);
  • Aristotle University of Thessaloniki - Special Account of Research Funds - Department of Rural and Surveying Engineering (Geodesy and Surveying) (Greece);
  • Department of Meteorology (Cyprus);
  • National Observatory of Athens (Greece).

The implementation of “BeRTISS” project started in the 19th of September 2017 and the project duration is 24 months. The total cost of the project is 1 063 941 Euro.
The project is co-financed   by the European Union (EU) and National found of the countries involved.

The number of severe weather events such as flash floods and hail storms keep increasing due to the climate changes. For that reason the use of systems for monitoring and early warnings could be important for a large spectrum of public sectors.
The main objective of the “BeRTISS” project is to develop and implement a pilot transnational severe weather service based on GNSS tropospheric products for the Balkan‐Mediterranean area to improve the safety and quality of life and the protection of the environment, through the timely information regarding severe weather events and the long-term monitoring of climate change in the region. For the first time the people will have the possibility to see real-time monitoring of Water Vapor – which is one of the most critical factor, having significant part in every forecast.
In particular, the aims of the project are:

  1. Integration of national networks of GNSS stations located in the three countries in a united system;
  2. Collection, processing and analysis of GNSS tropospheric data through the establishment of GNSS Analysis Centers (AC);
  3. Calculation of the meteorological parameter PWV (Precipitable Water Vapor) for more accurate short-term prediction of severe weather events, following the innovative approach of exploiting GNSS satellite products;
  4. Creation of a dedicated website which will provide in real-time the National Meteorological Services and the community with PWV data and warnings of severe weather events.

Main tasks in which HSA will be responsible:

 

  • Delivery and installation of 9 permanent GNSS stations at 9 regional hail suppression command posts.  This will be the backbone of the GNSS network in Bulgaria providing real time GNSS data for AC of the BeTRISS project;
  • Meteorologists will will work on case studies and real time validation of the GNSS severe weather products for the 9 locations operated by HSA and developing tools for combining GNSS water  vaper data and weather radar data for nowcasting severe weather
  • A special web-site will be made for the project. In the web-site all the data will be published.