Recent Updates in Atmospheric Physics and Dynamics for NOAA's Unified Forecast System Applications

NOAA is collaborating with the US weather and climate science community to develop the next generation fully coupled earth system modeling capability for the Unified Forecast System (UFS). This initiative aims to enhance both research and operational applications across various temporal and spatial scales. This presentation provides an overview of the physics configurations and dynamics options utilized by UFS-based global and regional models. These models are either currently operational at NCEP or scheduled for upcoming implementations. Significant efforts have been dedicated to standardizing physics parameterizations and optimizing dynamic core options across all applications. These efforts are geared towards improving forecast accuracy, expediting the transition of physics advancements into operational use, and reducing the operational maintenance costs of systems. The presentation will showcase several examples to illustrate the achievements and obstacles encountered in unifying physics parameterizations and enhancing physics-dynamics coupling for different NCEP operational forecast applications across diverse temporal and spatial scales.