NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory has developed WRF Portal and Domain Wizard, web-based graphical applications for configuring and running WRF. WRF-Portal and Domain Wizard are Java Webstart GUI applications that enable users to easily define model domains, configure model runs, run the models on local or remote systems, monitor the tasks while they are running, inform users when they have completed, and visualize the model output. Support for both WRF-ARW and WRF-NMM is provided.

WRF-Portal and Domain Wizard are being developed in collaboration with researchers at the NOAA, NCAR, and the DTC to handle the configuration and running of up to hundreds of model runs in support of their model development activities. Written in Java, WRF-Portal and Domain Wizard run on all platforms and can be accessed from our website, www.wrfportal.org. WRF Portal also includes an internal and an optional external (server side) job manager program that manages and executes the jobs created by the portal. The job managers are designed to understand and handle dependencies between tasks, re-submit tasks that fail, and inform users when problems occur.

This paper will describe the current capabilities of WRF-Portal and Domain Wizard, provide examples of how the software can be used, and illustrate where future development is planned.