A recent history of the GFDN Tropical Cyclone Forecast Model

A Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC) implementation of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) hurricane model (GFDN) has provided operational guidance since 1996 for storms in all basins, including the Indian Ocean and Southern Hemisphere (Rennick 1999). This makes GFDN the only relocateable tropical cyclone model running in all tropical oceanic basins worldwide. The GFDL is a triply-nested moving mesh model that uses the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), Global Forecast System (GFS) as its parent model, from which it derives it's boundary conditions. By contrast, GFDN is currently configured as a doubly nested moving mesh model that uses boundary conditions from the Navy Operational Global Atmospheric Prediction System (NOGAPS) model (Rosmond, et al., 2002).

A history of GFDN model upgrades and performance is given, along with discussion of the operational differences between GFDL and GFDN.