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Bridges to Operations: HWRF Training at Home and Abroad

Spring 2016

The DTC hurricane team has provided training opportunities to learn the Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting (HWRF) system to both general users and active developers over the past several months.

The community HWRF modeling system (version 3.7a released in August 2015) is compatible with the NCEP 2015 operational implementation, which includes high-resolution deterministic tropical cyclone numerical guidance for all global oceanic basins. Due to the demonstrated skill and advanced capabilities of the HWRF model, there is a great deal of international interest for research and operational use. In order to meet these demands and foster collaborations, an HWRF tutorial was held at the Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology (NUIST) in Nanjing, China. DTC hurricane team members Ligia Bernardet and Christina Holt participated along with members of the Environmental Modeling Center (EMC) HWRF team. The tutorial, held 1-2 December 2015, attracted 84 participants and received positive feedback.

“ In addition to the tutorials aimed at general users working with the publicly released code, the DTC also responded to developer requests for specialized training. ”

Following the China tutorial, the DTC co-hosted an HWRF tutorial with the EMC HWRF team in College Park, MD at the NOAA Center for Weather and Climate Predication. This tutorial spanned three days from 25-27 January 2016. Tutorial attendees heard over 12 hours of lectures covering all aspects of the HWRF system, as well as enrichment lectures on the HWRF multi-storm modeling system, the HWRF ensemble predication system, HYCOM ocean coupling, and forecast verification. Invited speakers participated from various institutions, including NCEP/EMC, University of Rhode Island (URI), AOML/HRD and DTC. In addition to lectures, students received 6 hours of hands-on practical sessions. The event was well received from participants, many who unexpectedly attended the tutorial remotely due to the 25+ inches of snow that fell over the DC area the weekend prior!

Presentations and materials for the College Park, MD and Nanjing, China tutorials are posted at: http://www.dtcenter.org/HurrWRF/users/tutorial/index.php.

In addition to the tutorials aimed at general users working with the publicly released code, the DTC also responded to developer requests for specialized training. To meet the needs of active developers working with the HWRF repository code, the DTC hosted two separate HWRF specific Python trainings; one in conjunction with the HFIP annual review meeting in Miami, FL, and a second joined to the HWRF tutorial in College Park, MD. Training materials and resources from the developer trainings are available at: http://www.dtcenter.org/HurrWRF/developers/docs/documents.php

Typhoon Symposium and HWRF Tutorial--Nanjing, China group photo .
Contributed by Kathryn Newman