Bridging the Gap between Research and Operations using the Mesoscale Model Evaluation Testbed (MMET)

The advancement of operational Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) can benefit from a continual feedback loop of transferring new science innovations and technology from operations to the research community and back to operations (O2R2O), with the Developmental Testbed Center (DTC) playing a pivotal role in facilitating the transition of these new techniques by serving as a bridge between both halves of the NWP community. The Mesoscale Model Evaluation Testbed (MMET) was established by the DTC to provide a common framework for testing and evaluation to assist in streamlining the R2O process for promising new mesoscale modeling code. MMET provides initialization and observation data sets for a variety of high-impact and routine weather case studies that are of interest to the NWP community. Cases are run with the Weather Research and Forecasting Advanced Research WRF (WRF-ARW) and the NOAA Environmental Modeling System Nonhydrostatic Multiscale Model on the B-grid (NEMS-NMMB) for select operational configurations to provide baseline results of select operational configurations to be used for testing and evaluation by the entire NWP community. New science innovations can then be tested against these baselines to demonstrate the merits that could impact future operational configurations.

This presentation will highlight new capabilities that are currently being added to MMET for future use. Implementation of the Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation (GSI) system, which is a variational data assimilation system maintained by the DTC, is planned for future use in WRF and NEMS baseline configurations. New WRF-ARW baselines are also planned, utilizing the Rapid Refresh (RAP) and High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) physics suites which operate at 13km and 3km, respectively. Initial and boundary conditions from the HRRR will also be used and provided in cases being run with WRF-ARW. Additionally, future plans include adding a hurricane case using the Hurricane WRF (HWRF) physics suite. Finally, the Model Evaluation Tools (MET) verification package is undergoing new additions involving regridding capabilities which will allow users to regrid data “on-the-fly” within the MET package making it more user-friendly for nested domains.