Data Assimilation System Development for the Rapid Refresh Forecast System

The Rapid Refresh Forecast System (RRFS) is NOAA's next-generation regional convection-allowing ensemble forecast system in development for the National Weather Service. The RRFS is being developed collaboratively by the Environmental Modeling Center (EMC) and the Global Systems Laboratory (GSL), as well as the broader Unified Forecast System (UFS) community. The RRFS Data Assimilation System (RDAS) is also in development to improve RRFS forecasts. RDAS features an hourly cycled spinup cycle and an hourly cycled product cycle for the deterministic forecast system, along with an hourly cycled Ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF) data assimilation system. As part of the implementation of the first version of RRFS, RDAS is undergoing testing through real-time parallel and retrospective experiments. Detailed test results will be presented during the conference.↳

Additionally, the Joint Effort for Data Assimilation Integration (JEDI) will be incorporated into RDAS for RRFSv2. Current initiatives are focused on assessing and integrating JEDI within the RDAS framework for RRFSv2.