Progress with MPAS-JEDI

The significant progress has been made for MPAS-JEDI’s capability in the past year, thanks to collaborative development of the JCSDA core team and partner groups. Some highlights include: (1) hybrid-4DEnVar enabled in the latest code (previously only pure 4DEnVar worked properly); (2) all-sky radiance DA capability in the gain form of LETKF; (3) grouped localization length-scales for ensemble background error covariance; (4) impact assessment of more satellite radiance data (all-sky ATMS and GMI, all-sky ABI/AHI, clear-sky IASI/CrIS); (5) non-variational cloud analysis using ABI radiance data; (6) radar radial velocity and reflectivity DA at convective-scale with regional MPAS-JEDI. One important milestone change is that the new release 3.0.0 of MPAS-JEDI (planned in September 2024) will switch to use the official MPAS model’s version 8.2.1 from a special version of MPAS model based upon version 7. This change will allow MPAS-JEDI to make use of future enhancements of MPAS model, e.g., GPU capability. The first in-person MPAS-JEDI tutorial was also offered in September 2023, with nearly 40 participants from 17 institutes. We will showcase some results from global MPAS-JEDI cycling experiments and regional MPAS-JEDI experiments at convection-allowing scales. Given NOAA’s transition to adopt MPAS and MPAS-JEDI for regional NWP and broader community use, we expect that MPAS-JEDI will be further enhanced and improved with an accelerated pace in the next year.