1. US THORPEX Legacy Planning Meeting
The National Earth System Prediction Capability (National ESPC) Project
Daniel P. Eleuterio, Office of Naval Research
Jessie Carman, NOAA Office of Ocean and Atmosphere Research
Fred Toepfer, NOAA National Weather Service
Dave McCarren, Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command
US THORPEX Legacy Planning Meeting
June 5, 2014
- What can be done to facilitate the US research and operational communities to more effectively engage in the three THORPEX-Legacy projects?
- How to foster international collaborations for mutual benefit?
- What are some key scientific issues that can quickly benefit from a more focused research effort?
- How to further promote collaborations between the forecast science and the SERA research communities?
- How to further promote research to operational transitions?
Participants are encouraged to suggest additional themes to be considered for discussions.

2. National ESPC Overview
An interagency collaboration, initiated between Navy, Air Force and NOAA and expanded to DoE, NASA, and NSF in 2012, for coordination of research to operations of a National earth system analysis and prediction capability. The original project combined global weather models in an operational synoptic multi-model ensemble under NUOPC.
Seeks improved communication and synergy, for global prediction of weather, ocean, and sea ice conditions at weather to short-term climate variability timescales.
Common prediction requirements and forecast model standards that enable agencies to improve leverage and collaboration.
A national research agenda that will improve prediction across scales from days to decades.
Cooperative focus projects to assess predictability of global scale high impact environmental conditions to inform S&T, R&D, and transition to operations.
Towards an multi-model ensemble based air-sea-land coupled global prediction capability

3. Home Field Emphasis Challenges to Achieve a Weather-Ready Nation
Hail, Tornadoes, Tropical Storms & Hurricanes
Winter Storms, Ice
Extreme Heat and Cold
Droughts and Floods
Climate Adaptation
Sea Level Rise
Commerce and Navigation
Aviation Transportation
Food Security
Air and Water Quality
Ecosystem Health
Private Sector and National Security
Home Field Emphasis
Slide provided by Ed Rappaport
National Weather Enterprise
Public Safety and Economic Well-being of Nation
Public-Private Partnership

4. Defense Department Challenges – A Global Force for Good
Home Field Advantage
… at the Away Games
We provide worldwide forecasts to support DoD Operations – from the tropics to the poles, and from the depths of the ocean to the edges of space, across the coast to support stability operations, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

5. From Sources of Predictability at Weather to Seasonal/ Climate Variability Timescales to Operational Prediction through Global Coupled Model Ensembles

6. NRC Study on Subseasonal to Seasonal Forecasting
This study will identify:
Potential sources of predictability and assess their relative value for advancing predictive skill;
Process studies for incorporating new sources of predictability into forecast models;
Opportunities for application and advancement of atmosphere-ocean-land-sea ice coupled models at S2S timescales (a few days to several weeks);
Key observations needed for model initialization and verification of S2S forecasts;
Techniques for uncertainty quantification and verification of probabilistic products; and
Infrastructure requirements for computational, data storage and communication, and visualization techniques needed to make high resolution data assimilating global coupled ensembles an operational reality.

7. National ESPC Need: Seamless Full Earth System
(or at least “lightly seamed”)
Partnerships:
ESPC
NOPP
HFIP
NMME
USGCRP
USCLIVAR
NUOPC
WWRP/WCRP
National ESPC

8. Coupled Model Development Navy ESPC Highlights - Infrastructure
Design infrastructure for operational implementation for coupled system
Define implementation across operational systems, architecture requirements, cycling setup including DA
Note the single sided “one-way” arrows for the uncoupled system. The coupled system, on the right, contains the feedback between the main HYCOM and NAVGEM forecasting systems which have two subsystems in common, CICE and WW3. NAVGEM contains two unique subsystems its LSM and NAAPS which have indirect feedback with HYCOM primarily through NAVGEM flux output.
“Operational Implementation Design” has details on data volumes, resources required, and operational job distributions
“In press” as Naval Research Laboratory Memorandum Report search under author Metzger

9. Project Information and Highlights
NOAA Next Generation Global Prediction System (NGGPS) Earth System Prediction R2O (draft)
Project Information and Highlights
Scheduling
Scope:
Improved Model Guidance: Coupled NWP to 30 days
Expand critical weather forecasting research to operations (R2O)
Accelerate development and implementation of improved global weather & ocean prediction models
Improve data assimilation techniques
Improve software architecture and system engineering
Promote hurricane and other high impact forecast models that meet societal requirements
Estimated Benefits:
Address growing service demands
Increased accuracy and lead time for high impact weather forecasts
More reliable probabilistic forecasts
Effectively mitigate economic disruption from hurricanes and other predictable “strong signal” weather phenomena
Milestone
Date
Initiate Effort: Charter approved
02/2014
Planning Teams Organized
03/2014
Develop Spend Plan and Research Priorities
06/2014
Develop Next Generation Global Prediction System Implementation Plan
09/2014
Award External Grants
3/2015
Implement NEMS Physics Interoperability Interface
9/2015
Demonstrate Coupled NGGPS
Next Generation Global Prediction System (NGGPS)
Issues/Risks
Increased WCOSS Developmental Computing Capacity Needed
Probabilistic operational skill at longer lead times needs to be better quantified and communicated.

10. Air Force Post-Processed Ensemble Products
Unlike Navy and NOAA, USAF does not develop their own global model nor share their forecast fields due to their licensing agreement. Instead they provide joint NUOPC Ensemble processing.
Probability of
Surface wind > 25, 35, 50 kts
Lower and upper level moderate and severe turbulence
Icing at 500, 700, 850, 925 mb
Surface viz < 1, 3, 5 nm
Surface temp < 32, > 90
Many Precip products and others
All provided to NCEP NOMADS servers as operational fields, 6 hrs time steps out to 10 day leads for all fields.
Plans for longer lead times and higher resolution in 2014/15.
Probability of Surface Level Reduced Visibility
Probability of Severe
Fighter Index of Thermal Stress (FITS)

11. Collaborative Programs Across Scales: Multi-model ensembles
Inter-agency Atmospheric Weather and Coupled Climate R2O Ensembles
Hurricane Forecast Improvement Program (HFIP: 1-7 days)
Providing rapid improvement R2O capability for US (NOAA),
Global (Navy) Tropical Cyclone Track and Intensity
Distributed Production Centers leverage multi-agency resources
National Unified Operational Prediction Capability (NAEFS/ NUOPC: 5-16 days)
Improving medium-range forecasts and probabilities of specific events.
Distributed Production Centers leverage multi-agency missions and resources
Planned extension to 30 days (poss. 45 days)
Increasing resolution to 1/2˚ in 2015
Incorporating Common Modeling Architecture (ESMF)
National Multi-model Ensemble (NMME: 3-9 months)
Multi-model Climate Ensembles: more accurate than any one model
Distributed Production: leverages multi-agency and
international computer infrastructure and investments (US, Canada)
Currently a Phase II research project through FY14 for higher
resolution output suitable for sub-seasonal updates (Weeks 3-12).

12. DRAFT Interagency National ESPC Fielding Plan (2018)
Forecast Lead
8-14 Days
15-30 Days
31 – 90 Days
3 – 18 Months
Annual to Decadal
0-7 Days
National Global Prediction Needs
Boundary conditions for TC Track & Intensity, TC genesis, Hi Res Littoral air/ocean operations, EM/EO/NBC prediction
Drought/Flood, Heat Wave/Freeze Prediction, Storm Surge/Inundation/Erosion, Beach Warnings, Safety/Emergency/Public Health Operations, Ship & Aircraft Routing . . .
Strategic Planning, Environmental Stress Instability, Arctic Sea Lanes, Ship and Land Transportation Infrastructure Management, Agriculture/Fisheries Planning & Ecosystem Management, Water Resource Management, Energy Sector Planning . . .
Navy and DoD Capability
TC-COAMPS
Others
NAVGEM/HYCOM/CICE/WW-3
NAVGEM Ensemble
NUOPC/NAEFS Ensemble
DOD Applications of NOAA managed Seasonal Ensemble Prediction
Static Climatology/Reanalysis
based on past environment
“Climatology Products”
HFIP Ensemble
NUOPC Ensemble
NOAA Capability
HWRF
GFDL
GFS
Climate Fcst System (CFSv2/3)
National Multi-Model Ensemble (NMME)
GFS, HYCOM, WW-3
GEFS Ensemble
Multi-Model Ensemble
CFS-R, HURDAT, etc.

13. The call for Extended Range Products in the S2S Gap (Federal/Operational, Credible, Reliable, Calibrated, and Probabilistic)
When initialized anywhere in phase space, the solution collapses toward this attractor. However, behavior of the trajectory is extremely sensitive to the initial conditions. -- Ed Lorenz (1963)
Every day meteorologists predict next week’s weather…..Research is underway to develop models that will help them make predictions on an even longer timescale, seasonal forecasts of monsoon rains for example. --Tim Palmer, A weather eye on unpredictability (1991)
Nearly 25 years later are we as far along as we should be?

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