From: MCOSMOS%MEADOW@email.meto.govt.uk
Date: Wed, 06 Jul 1994 09:09:12 +0000 (GMT)

Reply address:wmearns@email.meto.govt.uk                                 
Name: William Mearns                                                      
Organization: UK Meteorological Office                                    
Interests: Automatic Text Generation (with prospect of Expert               
               Systems also being considered in future...)                  
Project description:                                                        
    So far, the UKMO has only done some small-scale evaluation of           
automated text generation. This has been the sole responsibility of         
myself (working in the Product Development branch of our Commercial         
Services division). My 'disciplines' are (in order of comprehension!):      
Maths, AI, Meteorology.                                                     
    Best results have so far come from software based on the Canadian       
'FoG' system: many thanks go to the guys at Environment Canada who are      
doing such a great job! Their system makes use of the Meaning-Text          
Model postulated by the Russian linguists Mel'cuk and Apreysan, and         
is VERY sophisticated... I have taken the text-generation part of their     
'FPA' (which is written in Prolog) and converted it to run on a PC          
using raw NWP data as input.                                                
    Small test have produced descriptions of rainfall, cloud cover,         
etc. A fuller trial was done to evaluate its suitability for fisheries      
forecasts (consisting of wind and sea-state descriptors).                   
    Anyone wishing to compare notes, feel free to get in touch!