Development and Implementation of MODE Time Domain Object-Based Verification

MODE Time Domain is an extension of the Method for Object-based Diagnostic Evaluation (MODE) that incorporates the time dimension in verification of gridded scalar fields such as precipitation. MODE is a spatial verification technique that is part of the Model Evaluation Tools (MET) verification software package. Many users have expressed a desire for an object-based verification tool similar to MODE that could handle time variability in forecasts and observations. Like 2D MODE, the Time Domain version uses fuzzy logic to perform object matching and merging, although since one of the dimensions is non-spatial, some object attributes carry new information. Additionally, tracking of spatial objects over time falls out of this approach with no additional effort. This extension of MODE is planned to be available in next year's release of MET.