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| State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) | |
|---|---|
| Name | State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) |
| Native name | Agencia Estatal de Meteorología |
| Formed | 1988 |
| Preceding1 | Instituto Nacional de Meteorología |
| Jurisdiction | Spain |
| Headquarters | Madrid |
| Parent agency | Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda |
State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) is the national meteorological service of Spain, responsible for weather forecasting, climate monitoring, and meteorological research. It provides operational forecasts, severe-weather warnings, and climatological records used by public authorities, the aviation sector, and scientific institutions. The agency interfaces with national ministries, regional administrations, international organizations, and academic partners.
AEMET traces its institutional roots to the 19th-century observatories and the Instituto Geográfico y Catastral era, inheriting duties from the Instituto Nacional de Meteorología. The agency's formal creation in 1988 followed administrative reforms under successive Spanish cabinets and legislative acts associated with the Constitution of Spain transition and decentralization affecting the Autonomous communities of Spain. Over decades AEMET modernized its services alongside developments at the World Meteorological Organization, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, and the European Space Agency, incorporating satellite data from Meteosat and numerical models from international consortia. Historical collaborations involved the Spanish National Research Council, regional meteorological services in Catalonia, Andalusia, and Madrid, and operational links with the Spanish Air Force and civil aviation authorities at Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport.
AEMET is structured with directorates and regional delegations reporting to the Spanish Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda. Its governance includes a director-general appointed through ministerial procedures influenced by norms from the Council of Ministers (Spain), and oversight involving parliamentary committees in the Cortes Generales. Administrative units interact with legal frameworks such as national laws on meteorology and international obligations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the European Union regulatory environment. The agency maintains liaison offices for coordination with entities like the Spanish Institute for Oceanography, the National Institute for Aerospace Technology (INTA), and municipal authorities in cities such as Barcelona, Seville, and Valencia.
AEMET provides weather forecasts, climatological services, and meteorological advisories used by sectors including aviation at Aena, maritime operations in ports like Algeciras, renewable energy firms, and agriculture in regions such as La Mancha. It issues severity warnings relied upon by regional civil protection bodies including the Directorate-General for Civil Protection and Emergencies and coordinates with the Ministry of Health (Spain) for heatwave guidance. AEMET supplies observational data to scientific projects run by the Spanish National Research Council and academic programs at universities including University of Barcelona and Complutense University of Madrid, and offers public products through media outlets such as Radiotelevisión Española and digital services used by private weather companies.
The agency operates surface stations, radiosonde launches, radar networks, and automatic weather stations distributed across the Spanish mainland, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, and overseas territories. Its infrastructure includes Doppler radar sites coordinated with the European Radar Network, synoptic stations integrated into the Global Observing System managed by the World Meteorological Organization, and coastal buoys tied to the Copernicus Programme maritime monitoring services. AEMET also ingests remote sensing from satellites such as Meteosat Second Generation and collaborates on ground-based lidar and wind profilers deployed near facilities like Puerta del Sur and experimental sites supported by the Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (ICMA). Data exchange agreements cover networks like EUMETNET and the ECMWF data dissemination system.
AEMET fosters R&D through in-house laboratories and partnerships with research centers such as the Spanish National Research Council, university departments at University of Granada and Polytechnic University of Madrid, and collaborative programs with ECMWF and ESA. Research priorities include numerical weather prediction, climate change attribution consistent with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, mesoscale modeling, and data assimilation techniques leveraging observations from Meteosat and ground networks. AEMET scientists publish in journals and participate in international field campaigns, working with initiatives like the European Research Area and Horizon programmes of the European Commission.
AEMET issues color-coded alerts and meteorological bulletins used by emergency services, regional administrations, and port authorities during events such as storms impacting Strait of Gibraltar, heatwaves over Iberian Peninsula, and heavy snowfall in the Pyrenees. Warnings are coordinated with the Directorate-General for Civil Protection and Emergencies and interoperable with systems operated by the National Meteorological Service of France and Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere. The agency contributes situational awareness during incidents involving infrastructure in urban centers like Madrid and Bilbao and provides forecast support to multinational exercises with NATO partners and humanitarian agencies.
AEMET participates in multilateral frameworks including the World Meteorological Organization, EUMETSAT, EUMETNET, and bilateral agreements with meteorological institutes such as the Met Office, Météo-France, and the Deutscher Wetterdienst. It contributes to European initiatives like the Copernicus Programme and data-sharing consortia involving the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. These collaborations underpin cross-border forecasting for the Mediterranean Sea basin, joint research projects within the Horizon Europe framework, and capacity-building efforts with agencies in Latin America and North Africa.
Category:Meteorological agencies Category:Scientific organisations based in Spain Category:Climate of Spain