An operational forecasting system for the New York City Metropolitan Area that provides urban-scale input to NARAC and HPAC

An operational version of the community Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model has been established for the New York City (NYC) metropolitan area to improve analyses and forecasts of the prevailing complex urban and coastal-zone boundary-layer processes through the assimilation of NASA satellite data. Nowcasts (1-h) of lower-tropospheric winds will also be provided by a Variational Doppler Radar Assimilation System (VDRAS), which assimilates radial-wind data from the WSR-88D radars in the area. The temporally and spatially blended four-dimensional meteorological data sets from the two models will be used as input to the transport-and-diffusion models of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's (LLNL) National Atmospheric Release Advisory Center (NARAC) and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency's (DTRA) Hazard Prediction and Assessment Capability (HPAC). There will be a three-year development period for evaluating and improving the modeling systems, during which upgrades will be incrementally transitioned to the operational system that provides meteorological input to NARAC and HPAC. After this development period, the final operational system will continue to provide high-resolution meteorological input to NARAC and HPAC for NYC and the nearby coastal zone. We welcome inquiries from organizations that are interested in collaborating on the analysis of these long-term model-assimilated data sets and on the verification of the forecasts for the urban and coastal boundary layer.