This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Computer program predicts the weather
21/10/2002
A newly-developed computer program will assist the
growth of crops in Scotland by better predicting weather
patterns.
Scientists at Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland
have developed a package which, by producing data that
would normally take years to generate, can simulate changes
in the weather at different locations.
The project which led to the design of the program,
'Development of multivariate spatio-temporal weather
models', cost £150,000 and was funded by the Executive's
Flexible Fund.
The publicly available computer package will have
immediate applications for future agriculture developments,
through its ability to predict how a new variety or new
form of husbandry, for example, will perform in a
particular area. It can also be applied to other areas of
research such as climate modelling, and pollution
studies.
Rural Development Minister Ross Finnie said:
"Improving our understanding of the weather brings
enormous benefit to those developing agriculture in
Scotland. This programme will play an important role in
helping all those involved in the Scottish industry.
"It will also have further applications in other notable
areas of research, such as global warming. I am pleased to
see Scottish scientists, with support from the Executive,
leading the way in this area of research."
The computer programme is available in: 'Weather
modelling using a multivariant latent Gaussian model' by
Durban, M. and Glasbey, C.A. published in Agricultural and
Forest Meteorology, volume 109, pages 187-201.