Agencia Estatal de Meteorología
| Agencia Estatal de Meteorología | |
 | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | February 8, 2008 |
| Preceding agency |
|
| Headquarters | Madrid, Spain |
| Agency executive |
|
| Parent agency | Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment |
| Website | www.aemet.es |
Agencia Estatal de Meteorología, AEMET (translated from Spanish as the State Meteorological Agency) is Spain's meteorological agency operating under the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment.
It was founded in 1887 as the "Instituto Central Meteorológico", and has been renamed several times (the last one in 2008). It has its headquarters in Madrid.
It represents Spain in international meteorological institutions, such as the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).
Activities and resources
AEMET's main task is "to develop, implement and provide meteorological services falling within the competences of the State, as well as to give support to other public and private activities which improve the safety and quality of life of the Spanish society".
Its activities include, among others, taking meteorological observations in Spain and archiving them, weather monitoring and forecasting, and doing scientific research in numerical weather prediction models.
To accomplish these tasks AEMET has at its disposal high computing power and a vast observation network, including manned and automatic weather stations, radiosondes, weather radar and lightning detectors.[1]