When the GCIP program began in NOAA/OGP the early 1990's, the developers of the first GCIP plans embraced a vision of technology infusion from GCIP research to the developers of numerical weather and climate prediction models at NCEP (and hydrological prediction models in NWS/OHD). To accomplish this, the GCIP principals then instigated and established the NCEP/OHD GCIP Core Project in 1993. This invited talk presents an overview and history of the impact of the GCIP program on the improvement of NCEP numerical prediction models, through the efforts of this GCIP Core Project and its collaborating GCIP research investigators.

This presentation will review the advancements of the NCEP NOAH Land Surface Model (LSM), including improvements in the physics and parameters of evaporation, vegetation, infiltration, runoff, albedo, snowpack, frozen soil, and ground heat flux. Additionally, the history and performance of the NOAH LSM in the NCEP Eta mesoscale model will be presented, including the initiation of fully continuous cycling of Eta/NOAH land states in the Eta Data Assimilation System (EDAS). Numerous external GCIP investigators were instrumental in evaluating the performance of the coupled Eta/NOAH model. Other GCIP investigators contributed new products for the initialization of the snow cover and vegetation greenness in the Eta/EDAS suite. Additionally, another pillar GCIP initiative at NCEP was a) the assembly of a CONUS-domain version (Stage IV) of the 4-km hourly WSR-88D-based radar/gage precipitation analysis in partnership with the NWS/OHD and b) the successful assimilation of this Stage IV precipitation analysis in the EDAS.

The NOAH LSM upgrades and precipitation assimilation in the Eta/EDAS are hallmark components of the 25-year (1979-2004) Eta/EDAS-based NCEP Regional Reanalysis now underway. Impetus for the Regional Reanalysis grew in part out of the successful application to water budget studies of the GCIP archive of Eta/EDAS output (at NCAR) by numerous GCIP researchers. Also, NCEP support of the public workstation version of the Eta model has enabled GCIP investigators to successfully transfer Eta model executions and associated water budget studies to other parts of the globe. Additionally, the NOAH LSM is being tested in the new mesoscale model (named WRF) being developed jointly by NCAR, NCEP, FSL, and AFWA. The NOAH LSM is also formally supported as an LSM choice in the NCAR Community MM5 mesoscale model.

Most importantly, as the flagship effort of the GAPP Core Project (the GCIP Core Project follow-on), the NOAH LSM has been incorporated recently into test versions of NCEP's global forecast model and testing of the latter has begun at both the medium-range and seasonal climate time scales. Moreover, in the last year, a Regional Climate Model (RCM) version of the Eta/NOAH model has been developed and tested in seasonal simulations for NAME-designated summer seasons. A companion major new thrust in the Core Project is improving land-state initialization in both regional and global models via the development of realtime Land Data Assimilation Systems (LDAS) on both national and global domains with major partners from NASA/GSFC, NESDIS, OHD, AFWA, and five universities.