User:Goerlitzthomas/sandbox

The institute for ubiquitous meteorology (UBIMET) is a worldwide provider of weather forecasts and severe weather warnings.

Company
Dr. Michael Fassnauer and Manfred Spatzierer established UBIMET in Vienna, Austria in September 2004 under the name Meteomedia GmbH, a subsidiary of Meteomedia AG.

In its first year, UBIMET provided weather services to institutions like the German Press Agency, ÖBB, and UNIQA insurance. In addition, UBIMET built the Austrian Severe Weather Center to accurately forecast extreme weather events.

In December 2008, the shares of the Meteomedia Group were bought back by the company's founders and the name was changed to UBIMET GmbH.

Today, organizations from the insurance industry, media (Der Standard, Kronen Zeitung), sports (FIA, Moto GP, RedBull, Australian Olympic Sailing Team, 2013 European Beach Volleyball Championships) infrastructure (ÖBB, Deutsche Bahn), energy (e.on), mining (Austmine ) and logistics (STRABAG) use UBIMET’s corporate services. Several million private customers receive severe weather warnings via SMS messages and/or e-mail.

UBIMET provided the weather data for the Red Bull Stratos project in 2012 when Felix Baumgartner successfully ascend to 128,100 feet in a stratospheric balloon and free-fall jump at supersonic speeds before parachuting to the ground. In the same year, Red Bull became a company shareholder. UBIMET now provides the weather data for many of Red Bull’s global sporting events (e.g. Wings for Life World Run 2014 and 2015).

Since 2014, UBIMET has a contract with FIA to provide weather forecasts for all Formula One Grand Prix races. Especially important were the forecasts for the Formula One race on October 5th 2014 in Suzuka, when Typhoon Phanfone approaches the Japanese city.

UBIMET also provided meteorological data for the 2013 and 2014 Tissot Australian motorcycle Grand Prix.

Research and Development
In cooperation with several international research institutes, UBIMET’s research and development department is involved in multiple research projects. UBIMET won the INDUS (individualised, nowcasting-based disaster and storm warning system) project for the "Safe & Secure Vienna 2006" of the Centre for Innovation and Technology (ZIT) in the area Research & Development at the City of Vienna’s Viennovation Awards. Since 2007, the SITUMET (situation-based ubiquitous meteorological services) project was selected for funding by ZIT, UBIMET was named as a "Vienna Spot of Excellence".

In 2006, UBIMET received the "Mercury-Prize for the most innovative service" of the year by the Vienna Chamber of Commerce for the severe weather warning system WIND IV (weather information on demand).

In 2011, UBIMET was one of three European companies to participate in the launch ceremony of “Future Internet”, a large European research initiative, in Brussels. The company was cited as an example of innovation in Europe’s internet future.

From January 2011 to April 2014, UBIMET and UNIQA worked together with the Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication FOCUS on the EU-funded international study Opti-Alert. The aim of the study was to improve alerting strategies for extreme weather events.

Other projects:


 * United Nations - Economic Commission for Europe: Weather Forecasts & Natural Hazards: Best practice examples / Climate change / Natural Hazards Map / Research activities


 * As part of the FI-PPP programme, ENVIROFI consolidates the Future Internet requirements from the Environmental Usage Area perspective and provides technical specifications and prototypes of interoperable geospatial Environmental Enablers.


 * eutrain-project.eu: Preventive Measures to Improve Resilience to Severe Weather at CIS Countries like Ukraine and Moldova

Data and Models
UBIMET currently has access to data, which are compliant to World Meteorological Organization (WMO) standards from several thousand weather stations worldwide. They also have access to satellite, weather radar, weather buoy, radiosonde and lightning data.

UBIMET uses global weather models and proprietary weather models.

Weblinks

 * http://www.ubimet.com
 * http://www.fokus.fraunhofer.de/1aa18d7737565666 - SITUMET
 * http://www.opti-alert.eu - OPTI ALERT
 * http://www.zit.co.at/en.html - ZIT