EMC modeling efforts to assist aviation forecasting

This talk will present an overview of modeling activities within the Mesoscale Modeling Branch of the Environmental Modeling Center, with particular emphasis on those aspects most relevant to aviation forecasting. Current and planned efforts involving the Eta and WRF models will be presented, with emphasis on upgrades to microphysics and precipitation assimilation with the goal of improving the initial cloud and moisture fields in the models. A discussion of the new Short-range ensemble forecasting (SREF) system will be included as an overview and complement to the paper presented by Zhou et al. on specific aviation-based SREF products.