The 2014/2015 projected expansion of NCEP's RTMA and URMA

The NCEP Real-Time Mesoscale Analysis (RTMA) and Un-Restricted Mesoscale Analysis (URMA) provide gridded 2DVar analyses of 2m-temperature and dew point, 10m-wind and wind gust, surface visibility, and surface pressure to support NDFD operations and routine forecast preparation and verification at the nation's Weather Forecast Offices. This work discusses the RTMA and URMA expansions planned for 2014 and 2015 to include the 2DVar analysis of daytime maximum temperature and overnight minimum temperature, mean sea-level pressure, total cloud amount, cloud ceiling, and significant wave height. It also discusses the use of separate control variables for the land and water masses to improve the representation of coastal gradients in the analysis, as well as the use of pseudo observations to improve the wind analysis over the Great Lakes. A new scalar analysis for 10m-wind speed is also added to enhance the current streamfunction and velocity potential-based wind analysis. Finally, the re-mosaicking of the 6-hour URMA precipitation to use the latest re-transmitted and better quality controlled analyses from the River Forecast Centers is discussed.