Evaluation of GFDL and Thompson microphysics using the Hurricane Analysis and Forecast System (HAFS) model

The Hurricane Analysis and Forecast System (HAFS) is a numerical weather prediction (NWP) model that has been developed to become the next operational hurricane model at NWS/NCEP. HAFS is designed specifically for Tropical Cyclone (TC) application within NOAA's Unified Forecast System (UFS). It features storm-following telescopic moving nests, Data Assimilation (DA) with vortex initialization, and a full three-way atmosphere-ocean-wave coupling framework.

The development of HAFS includes extensive testing to ensure its reliability and accuracy before its planned implementation in July 2023. An important component of NWP models is physics parameterization schemes, which are essential for simulating the complex physical processes involved in TCs, such as atmospheric dynamics, thermodynamics, and cloud microphysics. The Common Community Physics Package (CCPP) suites offer several physical parameterization schemes, and HAFSv1.0 is being tested with two microphysics schemes: the GFDL (HAFSv1.0a) scheme and the Thompson (HAFSv1.0b) scheme.

The Developmental Testbed Center (DTC) is evaluating the outputs of the two configurations, and this presentation will focus on the performance of the configurations in both the large scale environment and the storm core. The evaluation includes case studies, and the verifications are conducted using the METplus verification package developed by the DTC.