Transitioning research to operations: Implementing the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model for developing countries

Weather Decision Technologies Inc. (WDT) specializes in transitioning meteorological research into operations, particularly in the areas of radar meteorology, numerical weather prediction, and weather decision support tools and has built a robust suite of operational applications that are used to serve domestic clients. Additionally, WDT deploys and integrates these systems as operational capabilities for the meteorological services of developing countries. WDT's latest venture in helping improve the meteorological services of other nations occurred in 2010 when it was awarded a contract to integrate two systems for the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) in Manila. One of the two systems consists of a complete mesoscale NWP system built around the WRF model. This system is fully integrated into PAGASA's operations and has the unique capability of assimilating the imagery channels from the Multifunction Transport Satellite (MTSAT) as well as the three-dimensional, quality-controlled radar mosaic from WDT's Hydrometeorological Decision Support Sytem (HDSS), also installed as part of the effort. The combination of the two systems is expected to provide unprecendeted improvements in PAGASA's ability to forecast life and property threatening tropical systems and their associated winds and heavy rainfall. An overview of the system, as well as its coupling to HDSS, will be provided and preliminary results and status shown.