Thursday, 2 August 2001
The Antarctic Mesoscale Prediction System: development and case examination
The support of science operations
in Antarctica requires accurate regional weather forecasts.
To improve the numerical guidance available to
scientists in the field (viz. McMurdo Station)
and flight forecasters in logistics support,
a real-time mesoscale forecasting system has
been developed for application over Antarctica.
The system employs the Fifth-Generation
Penn State University/NCAR Mesoscale Model 5 (MM5)
which yields forecasts twice daily. The model is run
in a 3-domain configuration, with horizontal grid sizes of
90 km, 30 km (covering the continent), and 10 km
(focussing on the McMurdo Station area). The model's
physics parameterizations are being tuned to the
polar region, and the system will undergo verification
studies over its first two field seasons ('00-'01, '01-'02).
Discussed will be project motivations, system configuration,
forecast products, and selected results.
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