US Post-THORPEX Research Program

Following the end of the international THORPEX program in 2014, three legacy projects have been established under WMO/WWRP: Polar Prediction Project (PPP), Subseasonal-to-Seasonal Prediction (S2S), and High-Impact Weather (HIWeather). In the US, there remains a need for (1) national coordination of weather-related research, (2) a coordinated national response to the three international legacy projects, and (3) the efficient organization and use of weather research infrastructure. To further these goals, an interim interagency committee has been formed to continue interagency weather research coordination, and a science planning committee is being formed with the main objective of developing a coordinated plan for the US community contributions to the three THORPEX legacy and other international and national projects. Planning for the US THORPEX-legacy efforts began last year during a meeting held in Silver Spring, Maryland in June 2014 in which the WWRP legacy projects were introduced, and participants identified critical national gaps, common scientific challenges and priorities in the context of these projects. Since then, Town Hall meetings have been held at the World Weather Open Science Conference in Montreal in August 2014 and at the AMS Annual Meeting in Phoenix in January 2015 to inform the US community of a new coordinated initiative, to seek feedback on the path forward, and to welcome contributions from the community to the drafting of the project plan. We will introduce the new coordinated initiative and briefly present the findings and recommendations from the first planning meetings and town halls in an effort to increase community awareness and participation in the development of the US science plan.