On the Development and Evaluation of UFS Atmospheric Model Physics for NCEP Operational Forecast Applications

NOAA is collaborating with the US weather and climate science community to develop the next generation fully coupled earth system modeling capability for Unified Forecast System (UFS) research and operational applications across different temporal and spatial scales. An overview is given in this presentation of physics configurations employed by UFS-based global and regional models that either are already in NCEP operation or are planned for upcoming operational implementations, including the Global Forecast System (GFS), Global Ensemble Forecast System (GEFS), the Rapid Refresh Forecast System (RRFS), and Hurricane Analysis and Forecast System (HAFS). Performance of individual physics parameterizations was first developed and evaluated in atmospheric-only forecast models in the aforesaid applications and then further evaluated and improved in the integrated earth system modeling applications to reduce model systematic biases and maximize model prediction skills. Significant efforts were made to unify physics parameterizations for all applications to speed up the transition of physics innovations to operation and to reduce the cost of operational systems maintenance. A few samples will be presented to highlight the successes and challenges of unifying physics parameterizations for different NCEP operational forecast applications across a variety of temporal and spatial scales.