Identification

Title

Model configuration versus driving model: Influences on next-day regional convection-allowing model forecasts during a real-time experiment

Abstract

As part of NOAA's Hazardous Weather Testbed Spring Forecasting Experiment (SFE) in 2020, an international collaboration yielded a set of real-time convection-allowing model (CAM) forecasts over the contiguous United States in which the model configurations and initial/boundary conditions were varied in a controlled manner. Three model configurations were employed, among which the Finite Volume Cubed-Sphere (FV3), Unified Model (UM), and Advanced Research version of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF-ARW) Model dynamical cores were represented. Two runs were produced for each configuration: one driven by NOAA's Global Forecast System for initial and boundary conditions, and the other driven by the Met Office's operational global UM. For 32 cases during SFE2020, these runs were initialized at 0000 UTC and integrated for 36 h. Objective verification of model fields relevant to convective forecasting illuminates differences in the influence of configuration versus driving model pertinent to the ongoing problem of optimizing spread and skill in CAM ensembles. The UM and WRF configurations tend to outperform FV3 for forecasts of precipitation, thermodynamics, and simulated radar reflectivity; using a driving model with the native CAM core also tends to produce better skill in aggregate. Reflectivity and thermodynamic forecasts were found to cluster more by configuration than by driving model at lead times greater than 18 h. The two UM configuration experiments had notably similar solutions that, despite competitive aggregate skill, had large errors in the diurnal convective cycle.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7df6w45

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2023-01-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact