Directorate

• Contents
• EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
• 1. SCOPE OF THE PROGRAM
• 2. IMPROVING OUR UNDERSTANDING OF EARTH-SYSTEM PROCESSES
• 2.1 Scale Interactions Associated with Precipitating Convective Systems
• 2.2 Understanding the Dynamics and Predictability of Weather Systems on Time Scales of 0-48 h
• 2.3 Fundamental Research on Precipitation Processes, with an Emphasis on their Improved Representation in Numerical Models
• 2.4 Understanding the Dynamics, Physics and Chemistry of Multi-Scale Atmospheric Chemical Constituent and Particulate Transport, Dispersion and Transformations
• 2.5 Fundamental Research in Boundary Layers and their Interfacial Interactions
• 3. ADVANCING THE SCIENCE OF ATMOSPHERIC PREDICTION
• 3.1 Advancing Short-Range Weather Prediction
• 3.2Advancing Data Assimilation Research
• 3.3 Improving Forecasting of Pollutants and Hazardous Materials
• 4. ADVANCED COMMUNITY RESEARCH TOOLS
• 4.1 WRF Community Model
• 4.2 Community Data Assimilation Techniques
• 4.3 Nested Community Climate Model
• 5. SUMMARY
• Acronym List
• Print Version
• Download Printable PDF

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mesoscale & Microscale Meteorology Division Science Plan:

4.1 WRF Community Model

(contents)

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

The new MMM community modeling effort builds upon the extensive experience gained through our history of developing and supporting the MM5 for community use. We have now frozen the MM5 development, which is being replaced by the “Advanced Research WRF” (ARW) community model. ARW is a subset of the overall WRF system and is designed to serve the research needs of both MMM and the broader atmospheric science community.

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

As with MM5, we will provide strong user support, including system maintenance and development, regular tutorials and support documentation. ARW has a rapidly growing user base, with over 2500 users having registered to download the code since the release of the earliest version in December 2000. We will continue to organize and host annual ARW User Workshops (173 participants from 73 institutions in 2004) to provide a forum for ARW users to learn about recent progress and future directions in ARW and WRF development, and to share their experiences in evaluating and testing ARW and developing new features. We will expand our classroom ARW tutorials to a semi-annual schedule to accommodate increasing demand, and will also offer online tutorial materials. In response to the growing international interest in ARW, we will organize additional international WRF workshops, scientific visits, and tutorials. In addition, we will provide daily assistance to users through maintenance of the WRF Web site, a WRF help facility conducted via email, and an online WRF user forum.

Development priorities for the ARW will reflect the research requirements within MMM and the needs of the broader research community. We will interact with WRF working groups and the DTC to coordinate development and testing with the broader WRF program and to developing documentation of the system components.

The WRF community model also provides an increasing range of plug-in modules, such as the WRF-Chem and WRF-Fire. For example, WRF-Fire is a plug-in module being adapted by MMM and the Wildland Fire Program. It represents the growth of a wildland fire in response to atmospheric conditions (such as wind and atmospheric humidity) in the vicinity of the fire as well as the feedbacks of the fire upon the atmosphere through releases of latent and sensible heat. These in turn modify atmospheric winds that feed back into fire behavior. This model will be used for understanding the interactions between fires and the atmosphere and release it as the first community tool for research and operational coupled atmosphere-wildland fire modeling.

 

Next section: Community Data Assimilation Techniques

 

 

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