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Advanced Research WRF (ARW)

Focus: To develop, maintain, and support the Advanced Research WRF model as the leading community mesoscale model in the world.

The Advanced Research WRF (ARW) community modeling effort builds upon the extensive experience gained through our history of developing and supporting the MM5 for community use. The ARW is a subset of codes from the overall WRF modeling system and is designed to serve the research needs of both MMM and the atmospheric science community.

The ARW offers portable codes, both well-tested and experimental, that are appropriate for a wide range of applications and for which we have the expertise and resources to support. Our intent is that the ARW will be versatile, cutting-edge in improvements and approaches, built with research community input, and guided by research community needs. The system offers idealized and real-data simulation capabilities, 3D-Var data assimilation, two-way interacting nested and movable grids, model coupling, and numerous physics options. New features will be implemented and supported as they are developed.

Development priorities for the ARW reflect the research requirements within MMM and the needs of the broader research community. We interact with WRF working groups and the DTC (Developmental Testbed Center) to coordinate development and testing with the broader WRF program and to document the system components.

The ARW model also offers plug-in modules and coupled modeling capabilities, such as WRF-Chem and WRF-Fire. WRF-Fire, for example, is a new plug-in module being adapted by MMM and the Wildland Fire Program. It represents the evolution of a wildland fire in response to atmospheric conditions (such as wind and humidity) as well as the feedbacks of the fire upon the atmosphere (e.g., through releases of latent and sensible heat). The model is being applied to understand the interactions between wildfires fires and the atmosphere, and it will be released as the first community tool for research and operational coupled atmosphere-wildland fire modeling.

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