Meteo-France system for Global Seasonal Forecasts :

Type of system : Oceanic Atmospheric General Circulation Model (Numerical)
Description of models :
Atmosphere: Arpege Model v4 T63L91, full set of parametrisations,
Ocean : Oceanic Model OPA8.2 and Orca grid (2°) with free surface,
Coupling : Oasis coupling,
Type of forecasts :
	Ensemble forecast with 41 members ; 8 different atmospheric conditions  from
 	ECMWF analysis (24 h lag), each being  associated with 5 different oceanic
 	conditions from Mercator analysis (random sampling) + 1 additional member using
 	last available atmospheric and oceanic conditions (last forecast),
Details of forecasts :
	Forecasted period of 7 months,
	Lead-time 1 month,(possibility of 2 3 and 4 months)
	3 month forecasts (m+2 to m+4) (possibility of m+3/m+5,m+4/m+6,m+5/m+7)
	Monthly update,
	Date of issuance at the beginning of each month (commitment for the 8th),
Details on products :
	Deterministic Production (Ensemble mean, significance test)
	Probabilistic Production (Ensemble Member frequency into 
	Tercile categories and Extreme categories (above +1 standard deviation 
	and below -1 standard deviation)).
	All products are calibrated (model climatology corrected - cf. Hindcast experience).
	Global fields, Space resolution 2°5 x 2°5, 
	T2m, T850, Z500, Précipitation, Mean Sea Level Pressure, SST (3 month averages),
	SST Indices plumes (Niño 1.2, Niño 3, Niño 3.4, Niño 4),
Format of products :
	Standard : Gif files , 
	On request : Ascii files, Grib files, Postscript files,
Hindcasts experience :
	Climatology of the forecasting suite over 1979-2007, 11 members
      	atmosphere : ERA40  
      	ocean : Mercator PSY2G2 
Verification dataset : T2m - ERA40 , T850 - ERA40 , Z500 - ERA40 , MSLP - ERA40 , 
	SST - Reynolds , Niño Indices - Reynolds , Precipitation - Xie & Arkins,