HWRF Simulation of Hurricane Ike (2008)

One of the greatest challenges in the meteorological community today is improving the intensity forecasts of tropical cyclones (TCs). To do so, a proper understanding of the internal structure and dynamics of tropical cyclones must be achieved. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Unmanned Aircraft Systems - Observing System Simulation Experiment (UAS-OSSE) was conducted to unravel a part the mysteries of TC intensity forecasting. This poster provides an overview of this project, but more specifically, it details the work that was performed by a summer student at the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) in Boulder, Colorado as part of the 2010 NOAA Practical Hands on Application to Science Education (PHASE) program. Simulations of the rapid intensification of Hurricane Ike (2008) were performed using the Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting (HWRF) model. Model diagnostics were performed using the Grid Analysis and Display System (GrADS) alongside Diapost, a diagnostic post-processor developed at the Hurricane Research Division (HRD) of the Atlantic Meteorological and Oceanographic Laboratory (AOML). This poster describes the use of Diapost to help researchers in the Forecast Applications Branch of the Global Systems Division at NOAA ESRL to evaluate hurricane structure simulated in HWRF. The work that was performed during the summer 2010 internship serves to enhance the collaboration between scientists at ESRL and the HRD.