Multi-Radar Multi-Sensor Version 20: Optimization and Research Strategy

The Multi-Radar Multi-Sensor (MRMS) system is a cutting-edge research and operational platform developed at CIMMS and NSSL. MRMS ingests and seamlessly combines data from multiple radars, satellites, surface observing systems, and numerical model analysis to provide a state-of-the-art storm-scale weather and hydrometeorological output that provides critical data that aides in the warning decision process to NWS and provides input analysis for several numerical weather prediction models and the national water model. MRMS was successfully transferred to operations in 2014 at NCEP and updates and new products for MRMS are transitioned into operations every year. In 2019 version 12 has been successfully completed at NSSL.

Utilizing resources from the 2018 Disaster Supplemental Appropriations, MRMS is undergoing a redesign and redevelopment of the underlying software to optimize computing resources and allow for quicker research and implementation of new algorithms. These changes will allow MRMS teams to continue to improve the product suite while maintaining the high quality expected of MRMS products. This presentation will discuss a plan for the software redesign, data flow optimization, and potential cloud computing capabilities for the next major version of MRMS. This presentation will highlight potential new algorithm development and grid resolution changes across the entire MRMS system and how MRMS continues to support key NOAA initiatives such as FACETs and the unified forecast system.