Software Release: Announcing the CCPP and CCPP SCM v7.0.0 release

2024-09-10 | The Developmental Testbed Center (DTC) is pleased to announce the Common Community Physics Package (CCPP) v7.0.0 public release on September 9, 2024. This release contains the CCPP Physics, a library of physical parameterizations, the CCPP Framework, an infrastructure that connects the physics to host models, and the CCPP Single-Column Model (SCM), a simple host model that employs the CCPP Physics and CCPP Framework. Additional information and access to the code can be found here. The CCPP Physics is envisioned to… Read More

PROUD Award - Excellence in Action: Tara Jensen, Project Manager III, NSF NCAR Research Applications Laboratory (RAL) and the DTC

Performance Recognition for OUtstanding DTC achievements (PROUD) Award for 2024 Q3

2024-08-22 | Tara Jensen is a Project Manager III with the NSF NCAR Research Applications Laboratory who serves as the project manager for the METplus project, co-leads the DTC METplus work — split across NCAR and NOAA nodes, and is also the NCAR Principal Investigator for the majority of the lines of funding that comprise it. The impact of Tara's contributions to the success of the DTC cannot be overstated. Tara’s initial… Read More

Lead Story: Atmospheric rivers (ARs) and the Water in the West Project

Spring 2024 | Atmospheric Rivers (ARs) are large streams of atmospheric moisture that form over the ocean and flow to the coast.  Complex air-sea and land-atmosphere interactions associated with land-falling ARs cause heavy rainfall and flooding, among other harmful consequences across the western U. S. states and further inland. Across the 11 western states, damages average approximately $1B per year with cumulative impacts of ARs for the recent 2022-2023 winter estimated at $4.6B. Read More

Director's Corner: Testing and Evaluation in the Machine-Learning Weather-Prediction Era

Spring 2024 | Can data-driven weather prediction models, in which artificial-intelligence methods are used to train algorithms for predicting specific weather elements to a desired lead time, be competitive with state-of-the-art dynamical-core and parameterized-physics numerical weather prediction models? Thanks to recent rapid advances in the field of data-driven weather prediction, what was a pipe dream just a few years ago now seems inevitable, particularly on the synoptic scale. Read More

Who's Who: Gopa Padmanabhan

Spring 2024 | Gopakumar Padmanabhan (Gopa) is a software engineer on the GSL Verification team. His primary role is team lead for the group that evaluates and migrates to the next-generation database platforms.  Gopa previously served GSL in the role of architect developing solar X-ray-image (SXI) displays and related software. Before joining the GSL verification team, Gopa worked at NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center… Read More

Bridges to Operations: Application of the Common Community Physics Package (CCPP) to the UFS-AQM Online System-based AQMv7 Implementation

Spring 2024 | The Environmental Modeling Center (EMC) at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), in collaboration with the Air Resource Laboratory (ARL) and the Global Systems Laboratory (GSL), Physical Sciences Laboratory (PSL) and Chemical Sciences Laboratory (CSL) under NOAA’s Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR), developed an advanced regional air-quality modeling system (AQM) within the framework of the Unified Forecast System (UFS) to enhance fire-emissions representation… Read More

Visitors: Evaluation of the impact of different microphysics scheme on HAFS model microphysics forecasts using GOES-R infrared images

Spring 2024 | The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has developed a new Hurricane Analysis and Forecast System (HAFS) to improve tropical cyclone prediction. Two configurations of HAFS, HAFSv1a (HFSA) and HAFSv1b (HFSB), have been operational  since 2023. The main difference between these configurations is their microphysics schemes, which are expected to significantly influence their ability to predict clouds, hydrometeors and rainfall from tropical cyclones. Read More

Community Connections: METplus Community Contributes Valuable Feedback For Improving Online Documentation

Spring 2024 | In response to feedback from the DTC’s Science Advisory Board, a METplus focus group was formed from respondents to an email request to METplus community members. They were tasked with increasing the accessibility of METplus across its user base, with a special focus on first-time users and those who may be discovering METplus through academic avenues. Input was gathered from focus-group members via questionnaires, surveys, group discussions, and practice exercises using real-world… Read More

Did you know?: Upcoming Events

Spring 2024 | Looking to engage with NOAA’s Unified Forecast System?  Take a look at these workshops! The 2nd Annual UFS Physics Workshop July 9-12, 2024 | NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory | Norman, Oklahoma (and hybrid) The focus for this year’s UFS… Read More

PROUD Award - Excellence in Action: Michelle Harrold, Associate Scientist IV, NSF NCAR RAL & DTC

Performance Recognition for OUtstanding DTC achievements (PROUD) Award

2024-05-22 | Michelle Harrold is an Associate Scientist IV with the NSF NCAR Research Applications Laboratory where she is a lead for the Rapid Refresh Forecast System (RRFS) Agile Framework and Air Force project teams and contributes to the Ensemble project and others outside the DTC. Michelle has provided critical leadership, subject-matter expertise, and task contributions related to verification and numerous other DTC… Read More

Lead Story: An opportunity to grow the UFS community and the RRFS

Winter 2024 | The Rapid Refresh Forecast System (RRFS) is NOAA’s next-generation high-resolution, rapidly- updating ensemble prediction system that is underpinned by the Finite Volume Cubed Sphere (FV3) dynamical core of the Unified Forecast System (UFS). The RRFS has been in development over the past 5-7 years as part of a major collaborative effort between numerous organizations in NOAA, an ongoing partnership with the DTC, and academia.Read More

Director's Corner: How the DTC has helped build a modeling community

Winter 2024 | As I near the end of my 31+ year career with NOAA, this is a wonderful (and timely) opportunity to reflect on the last (almost) 6 years of model development and DTC engagement. The last time I provided my perspective for a Director’s Corner was during the Summer of 2018. At that time, I had recently joined NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS) and was excited at the prospect of moving toward community-based model development to enhance NWS’ operational numerical weather prediction (NWP… Read More

Who's Who: Eric Gilleland

Winter 2024 | Eric Gilleland is a Project Scientist II with the Joint Numerical Testbed (JNT) at NSF NCAR. He lends his expertise to applying statistical methodology to a wide array of applications. In particular, he identifies trends in meteorological quantities within a climate context, designing new methods for comparing large spatial fields such as high-resolution weather forecast verification, and extensive work in extreme-value analysis. Eric also manages the highly successful DTC Visitor… Read More

Bridges to Operations: Technical Aspects of Generalizing the UFS to use Multiple Dynamical Cores

Winter 2024 | Following the scientific and programmatic discussions surrounding a potential shift of the Rapid Refresh Forecast System (RRFS) toward using the Model for Prediction Across Scales (MPAS) dynamical core (Carley et al. 2024), a Tiger Team was formed to scope out the technical work needed to add a second… Read More

Visitors: Cloud Overlap Evaluation for HAFS Tropical Cyclone Predictions

Winter 2024 | During their recent project for the DTC Visitor Program, Michael Iacono and John Henderson of Verisk - Atmospheric and Environmental Research (AER) used the newly operational Hurricane Analysis and Forecasting System (HAFS) to evaluate the impact of an improved method to represent the sub-grid variability and vertical overlap of partial cloudiness in radiative transfer calculations on tropical cyclone predictions. This work was an extended application of their exponential (EXP) cloud… Read More