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From its inception as an experiment to improve forecasts for aviation, to the transition of its final update to NOAA National Weather Service operations, the Global Systems Laboratory’s pioneering High-Resolution Rapid Refresh weather model established a remarkable resume of research accomplishments. Experimental versions of the HRRR improved the accuracy of...

GSL and the NOAA Office of Education co-hosted the 10th Science On a Sphere® (SOS) Users Collaborative Network Workshop December 1-3, 2020. This year it was held virtually for the first time with were more than 200 participants from eight countries and 68 presenters. GSL researchers hosted five sessions. The...

The NOAA National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) transitioned the final versions of GSL-developed NOAA’s flagship high-resolution weather models — Rapid Refresh (RAP) and High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) into operations. This latest RAP/HRRR version includes upgrades that make forecasts better in nearly all aspects including the upper atmosphere, surface, clouds,...

Four million acres burned in California alone this year, making 2020 a record fire season for the Western U.S. To explore this historic wildfire season, The Global Systems Laboratory’s (GSL) Science On a Sphere® (SOS) team released a new interactive educational tour about the 2020 wildfires on its free mobile...

GSL’s Curtis Alexander was awarded the 2020 OAR Employee of the Year for Leadership. The citation reads: “For excellence and leadership to develop and implement real-time hazardous weather prediction that improves the safety of U.S. citizens.” Dr. Curtis Alexander is a Supervisory Meteorologist at the NOAA Global Systems Laboratory (GSL)...

DaNa L. Carlis, Ph.D., joined GSL as the Deputy Director in September 2020. He comes to GSL from the NOAA Weather Program Office (WPO), where he established the Earth Prediction Innovation Center (EPIC) Program. DaNa enjoys working between science, policy, and society to ensure better products and services for the...

National Weather Service says accuracy of official forecasts has not been affected Aircraft-based observations are one of the most important meteorological observation sources within the modern global observing system. Flight reductions related to the COVID-19 pandemic raised questions about whether the loss of meteorological observations from aircraft-mounted sensors could affect...

Oct 27-29: GSL researchers will virtually host more than a dozen participants for a Functional Forecaster Assessment Test (FFAT) of new Hazard Services capabilities. FAT will be Oct. 27-29, all virtual using the Amazon Web Services cloud platform and will evaluate marine and non-precipitation weather products. Because the software already...

The Global Ensemble Forecast System – Aerosols (GEFS-Aerosols) was transitioned to operations on September 23, 2020. GEFS-Aerosols is an atmospheric composition model that integrates weather and air quality using the Finite Volume Cubed Sphere (FV3) core. The Global Systems Laboratory (GSL) led the project, with contributions from the Chemical Sciences...

The National Hurricane Center has given GSL’s Tom LeFebvre the local Isaac M. Cline award for his work on the High-Seas Forecast package that includes a set of tools that forecasters use to define the wind, waves, and weather in gridded form over the High Seas Area of Responsibility. Then...

September 28, 2020 – Recent research shows the range of skillful tropical cyclone track forecasts is expected to be extended by a day per decade in the future. The study, by scientists Feifan Zhou from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Zoltan Toth from NOAA’s Global Systems Laboratory, was published...

The Global Systems Laboratory’s (GSL) Science On a Sphere® (SOS) team has launched educational tours on its free mobile app – SOS Explorer™ (SOSx) including post-tour exercises for students. You can find the tours here: https://sos.noaa.gov/education/sosx-tours/ Science On a Sphere Explorer™ datasets can be quite complex. Tours guide users through...

With smoke from western wildfires poised to spread from coast to coast this week, people will be looking to a NOAA smoke model for guidance on everything from how it might impact their area, to the weather, to scheduling school recesses. The High Resolution Rapid Refresh-Smoke model may still be...

Two GSL staff were honored with a NOAA Silver Sherman Award. The Silver Sherman is awarded on an ad hoc basis by each member of the NOAA Leadership. It recognizes an individual who has performed work above his or her normal requirements, achieved a milestone that contributed significantly toward the...

While the eastern seaboard deals with the aftermath of Tropical Storm Isaias, the Apple Fire in southern California is poised to send smoke across much of the southwest United States over the next few days. NOAA’s experimental HRRR-Smoke model predicts that by midnight on Wednesday, August 5, smoke from the...

In August, a limited number of NWS Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs) will test and evaluate Hazard Services Winter Weather Watch/Warning/Advisory (WWA) capabilities. This will be possible through a special version of the software that GSL’s Evaluation and Decision Support Division has built and will make available to certain WFO’s. This...

GSL’s John Brown has been honored with the American Meteorological Society’s 2020 Charles L. Mitchell Award “For selfless dedication during more than four decades of service in developing forecast techniques, advancing model performance, training forecasters, and forecasting for large field programs. The Charles L. Mitchell Award is given in recognition...

One of NOAA’s newest models is providing more accurate forecasts of where the air quality impacts of the dust from the Saharan desert will be felt. Take a look at the movement of the dust as predicted by the model and visualized by NOAA GSL’s Science On a Sphere® team....

GSL/CIRA researcher Jeff Beck has been honored with a CIRA Exceptional Service Award for his leadership in the development, testing, and support of regional capabilities of NOAA’s numerical weather prediction models. Jeff has taken multiple leadership roles over the past year to help foster collaboration and community development of the...

GSL researchers will virtually host more than a dozen participants for a Functional Assessment Test of new Hazard Services capabilities. Hazard Services will modernize how the National Weather Service (NWS) and National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) create forecasts, watches, and warnings. The system provides a pathway to operations and...