Real-Time Forecasting of Precipitation and Hydrology for GPM Field Campaigns

Two recent GPM field campaigns included a focus on real-time forecasting of precipitation and hydrology. The Iowa Flood Studies (IFloodS) campaign took place from May - June 2013 in Eastern Iowa, with the objective of evaluating GPM products in flood forecasting. The Integrated Precipitation and Hydrology EXperiment (IPHEx) took place from May - June 2014, in Western North Carolina, with the objective to evaluate QPE products for hydrologic forecasting and water resource applications in the Upper Tennessee, Catawba-Santee, Yadkin-Pee Dee and Savannah River basins. As part of these campaigns, NASA/GSFC scientists provided real-time precipitation and land surface hydrologic forecasts using our NASA Unified Weather Research and Forecasting (NU-WRF) modeling system. The NU-WRF model generally performed quite well, as will be illustrated using real-time reference QPE products such as the NOAA Stage IV radar-raingauge analysis as well as the NSSL MRMS. Further analysis of routed land surface model runoff compared to USGS streamflow measurements indicates that the hydrologic forecasts have skill as well.