An official website of the United States government. Here's how you know. ⇵

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

GSD receives NWS approval for full implementation of the RAPv5/HRRRv4

GSD has received science approval from the NOAA National Weather Service (NWS) to proceed with full operational implementation of the 13km Rapid Refresh version 5 and the 3km High-Resolution Rapid Refresh version 4 weather prediction models by mid-2020. This decision was made on Friday, December 20, 2019, after a period of stakeholder feedback including many positive comments from NWS field offices and national centers.

The scope of the implementation includes coupling to a model with lake hydrodynamics to improve forecasts in the Great Lakes region, a module that produces wildfire-driven smoke forecasts and predictions of the impact of smoke on the weather, and storm-scale ensemble data assimilation. The code has also been optimized to produce a 48-hour forecast in the same amount of time as it previously took to produce a 36-hour forecast.

This final configuration of these RAP/HRRR model systems will serve as an operational baseline for the transition to a regional convection-allowing application in the Unified Forecast System, known as the Rapid Refresh Forecast System (RRFS).

Congratulations to the team of people who have contributed to this success!

Data Assimilation Curtis Alexander, Amanda Back, Stan Benjamin, David Dowell, Jeff Duda, Guoqing Ge, Ming Hu, Eric James, Terra Ladwig, Haidao Lin, Steve WeygandtModel Physics/Chemistry Ravan Ahmadov, Hannah Barnes, Stan Benjamin, John Brown, Georg Grell, Siwei He, Jaymes Kenyon, Joe Olson, Tanya Smirnova, Mike Toy, Greg Thompson (NCAR)Model Assessment/Verification Trevor Alcott, Jason English, Venita Hagerty, Jeff Hamilton, Brian Jamison, Bill Moninger, Randy Pierce, Molly Smith, Bonny Strong, Ed Szoke, Dave TurnerRetrospectives Execution/Data Flow Trevor Alcott, David Dowell, Jason English, Eric James, Jaymes Kenyon, Terra Ladwig, Bob Lipschutz, Josh WeberWCOSS Parallel Maintenance and Support David Dowell, Ming Hu, Sam TrahanManagement Curtis Alexander, Melinda Marquis

For more information contact: Susan Cobb 303-497-5093

Last Update: February 11, 2020

Our Mission

Lead research and directed development through the transition of environmental data, models, products, tools, and services to support commerce, protect life and property, and promote a scientifically literate public.

Research Areas

Organizational Excellence, Earth System Prediction, Advanced Technologies, and Decision Support are the foundation to achieving the GSL Grand Challenge: Deliver actionable global storm-scale prediction and environmental information through advanced technologies to serve society.

Global Systems Laboratory