(Formerly Paper P13R.1) A hydrometerological test bed and the NMQ project

The National Severe Storms Laboratory in collaboration with several federal and state government agencies as well as private partners has established a national hydrometeorological test bed for the research and development of multi sensor applications for quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE), 0-3 hour quantitative precipitation forecasts, and severe weather monitoring. The National Mosaic and Quantitative precipitation estimation (NMQ) project's primary objective is the creation of high-resolution applications towards precipitation estimation for flash flood detection and fresh water resource management as well as severe weather detection. The NMQ project functions as a community based research and development program that encompasses high-resolution integration of multiple observational data streams, prototype and technique development environment with real time verification and performance assessment. The NMQ project capitalizes on the rapid communication of base level meteorological radar data as well as satellite, surface observations and numerical weather prediction data to facilitate application development, deployment and operational assessment on national scales at very small time and space resolutions.

The NMQ system utilizes a 40+ node high performance Linux computing cluster connected to a NOAA port as well as national and regional data sources. The NMQ system cluster also serves as development and testing platform comprising of a Joint Applications Development Environment (JADE) which allows operational, university researchers and government agency scientists to develop and assess in real time the performance of new and advanced hydrometerological techniques as well as multi sensor severe weather applications.