Research project ‘UBIalert’ develops global severe weather alerts

Vienna, 1 December 2015 – Climate change is responsible for an increase in extreme weather. This makes early warning systems all the more important when it comes to protecting people and property. With its ‘UBIalert’ research project, weather service provider UBIMET is expanding its severe weather alert system for global application. The project is supported by the Frontrunner initiative of the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG), financed with funds from the Austrian Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology (bmvit).

Frontrunner supports Austrian companies, which operate internationally in a highly competitive market and, as an innovation leader, shape the competitive environment. With a focus on high-precision meteorology, weather service provider UBIMET was founded in Austria in 2004 and quickly established itself with precise severe weather alerts. ‘We’ve been investing in innovation for years and the Frontrunner title confirms the success of our research and development activities,’ explains Dr. Michael Fassnauer, CEO of UBIMET.

With the ‘UBIalert’ project, UBIMET has increased its efforts to expand the severe weather alert system for worldwide application. The idea is to enable pinpoint warnings about all key weather parameters, which requires developments that affect the entire chain of the severe weather alert. The plan is to invest in the quality of forecasts through new calculation methods and algorithms, in new warning parameters such as sand storms and hurricanes, in a global lightning monitoring network and in new products. This way, UBIMET is further expanding its core area of expertise in high-precision meteorology and securing its role as technology leader.

UBIMET has successfully accomplished more than 20 meteorological research projects in the areas of Energy and Mobility, Smart Cities and Disaster Management in recent years. The aim is an intelligent incorporation of highly precise meteorological information when planning and managing energy requirements, traffic streams, city planning, facility management, disaster control and risk management. ‘UBIalert’, which is UBIMET’s latest project, will be completed in 2018.

The Frontrunner program focuses on companies based in Austria, which are successfully establishing a leading position in technology internationally and would like to strengthen their position with a proactive Frontrunner strategy.