scholarly journals Medium-Range Convection-Allowing Ensemble Forecasts with a Variable-Resolution Global Model

2019 ◽  
Vol 147 (8) ◽  
pp. 2997-3023 ◽  
Author(s):  
Craig S. Schwartz
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Ensemble Forecast ◽  
The Other ◽  
Forecast System ◽  
Ensemble Forecasts ◽  
Variable Resolution ◽  
Cell Spacing ◽  
Medium Range ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Convective Mode

Abstract Two sets of global, 132-h (5.5-day), 10-member ensemble forecasts were produced with the Model for Prediction Across Scales (MPAS) for 35 cases in April and May 2017. One MPAS ensemble had a quasi-uniform 15-km mesh while the other employed a variable-resolution mesh with 3-km cell spacing over the conterminous United States (CONUS) that smoothly relaxed to 15 km over the rest of the globe. Precipitation forecasts from both MPAS ensembles were objectively verified over the central and eastern CONUS to assess the potential benefits of configuring MPAS with a 3-km mesh refinement region for medium-range forecasts. In addition, forecasts from NCEP’s operational Global Ensemble Forecast System were evaluated and served as a baseline against which to compare the experimental MPAS ensembles. The 3-km MPAS ensemble most faithfully reproduced the observed diurnal cycle of precipitation throughout the 132-h forecasts and had superior precipitation skill and reliability over the first 48 h. However, after 48 h, the three ensembles had more similar spread, reliability, and skill, and differences between probabilistic precipitation forecasts derived from the 3- and 15-km MPAS ensembles were typically statistically insignificant. Nonetheless, despite fewer benefits of increased resolution for spatial placement after 48 h, 3-km ensemble members explicitly provided potentially valuable guidance regarding convective mode throughout the 132-h forecasts while the other ensembles did not. Collectively, these results suggest both strengths and limitations of medium-range high-resolution ensemble forecasts and reveal pathways for future investigations to improve understanding of high-resolution global ensembles with variable-resolution meshes.

scholarly journals Utility of Global Ensemble Forecast System (GEFS) Reforecast for Medium-Range Drought Prediction in India

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 1781-1800 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reepal D. Shah ◽  
Vimal Mishra
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Root Zone ◽  
Monsoon Season ◽  
Ensemble Forecast ◽  
Extreme Weather Events ◽  
Forecast System ◽  
Drought Prediction ◽  
Air Temperatures ◽  
Medium Range ◽  
Precipitation And Temperature

Abstract Medium-range (~7 days) forecasts of agricultural and hydrologic droughts can help in decision-making in agriculture and water resources management. India has witnessed severe losses due to extreme weather events during recent years and medium-range forecasts of precipitation, air temperatures (maximum and minimum), and hydrologic variables (root-zone soil moisture and runoff) can be valuable. Here, the skill of the Global Ensemble Forecast System (GEFS) reforecast of precipitation and air temperatures is evaluated using retrospective data for the period of 1985–2010. It is found that the GEFS forecast shows better skill in the nonmonsoon season than in the monsoon season in India. Moreover, skill in temperature forecast is higher than that of precipitation in both the monsoon and nonmonsoon seasons. The lower skill in forecasting precipitation during the monsoon season can be attributed to representation of intraseasonal variability in precipitation from the GEFS. Among the selected regions, the northern, northeastern, and core monsoon region showed relatively lower skill in the GEFS forecast. Temperature and precipitation forecasts were corrected from the GEFS using quantile–quantile (Q–Q) mapping and linear scaling, respectively. Bias-corrected forecasts for precipitation and air temperatures were improved over the raw forecasts. The influence of corrected and raw forcings on medium-range soil moisture, drought, and runoff forecasts was evaluated. The results showed that because of high persistence, medium-range soil moisture forecasts are largely determined by the initial hydrologic conditions. Bias correction of precipitation and temperature forecasts does not lead to significant improvement in the medium-range hydrologic forecasting of soil moisture and drought. However, bias correcting raw GEFS forecasts can provide better predictions of the forecasts of precipitation and temperature anomalies over India.

scholarly journals Short-Range Ensemble Forecasts of Precipitation Type

2005 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 609-626 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew S. Wandishin ◽  
Michael E. Baldwin ◽  
Steven L. Mullen ◽  
John V. Cortinas
Keyword(s):  
Short Range ◽  
Ensemble Forecast ◽  
Ensemble Forecasting ◽  
Precipitation Forecast ◽  
Initial Condition ◽  
Forecast System ◽  
Ensemble Forecasts ◽  
Probabilistic Forecasts ◽  
Precipitation Type ◽  
Forecast Quality

Abstract Short-range ensemble forecasting is extended to a critical winter weather problem: forecasting precipitation type. Forecast soundings from the operational NCEP Short-Range Ensemble Forecast system are combined with five precipitation-type algorithms to produce probabilistic forecasts from January through March 2002. Thus the ensemble combines model diversity, initial condition diversity, and postprocessing algorithm diversity. All verification numbers are conditioned on both the ensemble and observations recording some form of precipitation. This separates the forecast of type from the yes–no precipitation forecast. The ensemble is very skillful in forecasting rain and snow but it is only moderately skillful for freezing rain and unskillful for ice pellets. However, even for the unskillful forecasts the ensemble shows some ability to discriminate between the different precipitation types and thus provides some positive value to forecast users. Algorithm diversity is shown to be as important as initial condition diversity in terms of forecast quality, although neither has as big an impact as model diversity. The algorithms have their individual strengths and weaknesses, but no algorithm is clearly better or worse than the others overall.

Applying Conditional Nonlinear Optimal Perturbation (CNOP) in the ensemble ENSO forecast system

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qian Zhou ◽  
Yunfei Zhang ◽  
Junya Hu ◽  
Wansuo Duan
Keyword(s):  
Ensemble Forecast ◽  
Error Growth ◽  
Forecast System ◽  
Ensemble Forecasts ◽  
Vector Method ◽  
Optimal Perturbation ◽  
Initial Errors ◽  
Prediction Time ◽  
Forecasting System ◽  
Marine Environmental

<p><span>      Considering the effects of initial uncertainty on the ENSO forecast, ensemble forecasts method is applied in the latest version of ENSO forecast system in National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center (NMEFC, China). The currently operational ENSO forecasts system of NMEFC is established based on the CESM model, with initialization and data assimilation. </span></p><p><span>      First, leading five Singular Vectors (SV) are obtained using the climatological SST empirical singular vector method, and a SV based ensemble forecasts system is . However, the SVs can only present the initial errors that have the fasted error growth rates in a linear assumption, while ENSO and its forecasting system both are nonlinear. So, Conditional Nonlinear Optimal Perturbations (CNOP), which is has the largest error growth at the prediction time in a nonlinear scenario, is used to replace the leading SV, while other 4 SVs are kept to construct a CNOP-SV based ensemble forecast system. The hindcasts of ENSO from 1982 to 2017 shows that, the ENSO prediction skills of both SV based and CNOP-SV based ENSO ensemble forecasts are improved when compared with the old forecasting system, moreover, the CNOP-SV based ensemble forecast system has a much larger spread, showing higher prediction skills.</span></p>

scholarly journals Evaluating Medium-Range Tropical Cyclone Forecasts in Uniform- and Variable-Resolution Global Models

2016 ◽  
Vol 144 (11) ◽  
pp. 4141-4160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher A. Davis ◽  
David A. Ahijevych ◽  
Wei Wang ◽  
William C. Skamarock
Keyword(s):  
North Pacific ◽  
Forecast Skill ◽  
False Alarms ◽  
Shallow Convection ◽  
Forecast System ◽  
Variable Resolution ◽  
Verification Method ◽  
Operational Forecasts ◽  
Medium Range ◽  
Environmental Prediction

Abstract An evaluation of medium-range forecasts of tropical cyclones (TCs) is performed, covering the eastern North Pacific basin during the period 1 August–3 November 2014. Real-time forecasts from the Model for Prediction Across Scales (MPAS) and operational forecasts from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Global Forecast System (GFS) are evaluated. A new TC-verification method is introduced that treats TC tracks as objects. The method identifies matching pairs of forecast and observed tracks, missed and false alarm tracks, and derives statistics using a multicategory contingency table methodology. The formalism includes track, intensity, and genesis. Two configurations of MPAS, a uniform 15-km mesh and a variable-resolution mesh transitioning from 60 km globally to 15 km over the eastern Pacific, are compared with each other and with the operational GFS. The two configurations of MPAS reveal highly similar forecast skill and biases through at least day 7. This result supports the effectiveness of TC prediction using variable resolution. Both MPAS and the GFS suffer from biases in predictions of genesis at longer time ranges; MPAS produces too many storms whereas the GFS produces too few. MPAS better discriminates hurricanes than does the GFS, but the false alarms in MPAS lower overall forecast skill in the medium range relative to GFS. The biases in MPAS forecasts are traced to errors in the parameterization of shallow convection south of the equator and the resulting erroneous invigoration of the ITCZ over the eastern North Pacific.

Using Fluctuation Microscopy to Characterize Structural Order in Metallic Glasses

2003 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 509-515 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Li ◽  
X. Gu ◽  
T.C. Hufnagel
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Transmission Electron Microscopy ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Metallic Glass ◽  
Metallic Glasses ◽  
The Other ◽  
Structural Order ◽  
Transmission Electron ◽  
Medium Range ◽  
Fluctuation Microscopy

We have used fluctuation microscopy to reveal the presence of structural order on length scales of 1–2 nm in metallic glasses. We compare results of fluctuation microscopy measurements with high resolution transmission electron microscopy and electron diffraction observations on a series of metallic glass samples with differing degrees of structural order. The agreement between the fluctuation microscopy results and those of the other techniques is good. In particular, we show that the technique used to make thin specimens for electron microscopy affects the structure of the metallic glass, with ion thinning inducing more structural order than electropolishing. We also show that relatively minor changes in the composition of the alloy can have a significant effect on the medium-range order; this increased order is correlated with changes in mechanical behavior.

scholarly journals Fully coupled high-resolution medium-range forecasts: evaluation of the hydrometeorological impact in an ensemble framework

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca Furnari ◽  
Linus Magnusson ◽  
Giuseppe Mendicino ◽  
Alfonso Senatore
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Soil Moisture ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Ensemble Forecasts ◽  
Soil Moisture Dynamics ◽  
Medium Range ◽  
Fully Coupled ◽  
Moisture Dynamics ◽  
Range Forecasts

Fully coupled atmospheric-hydrological models allow a more realistic representation of the land surface–boundary layer continuum, representing both high-resolution land-surface/subsurface water lateral redistribution and the related feedback towards the atmosphere. This study evaluates the potential contribution of the fully coupled approach in extended-range mesoscale hydrometeorological ensemble forecasts. Previous studies have shown, for deterministic simulations, that the effect of fully coupling for short-range forecasts is minor compared to other sources of uncertainty, however, it becomes not negligible when increasing the forecast period. Through a proof-of-concept consisting of an ensemble (50 members from the ECMWF Ensemble Prediction System) seven-days-in-advance forecast of a high impact event affecting the Calabrian peninsula (southern Italy, Mediterranean basin) on November 2019, the paper elucidates the extent to which the improved representation of the terrestrial water lateral transport in the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) – Hydro modeling system affects the ensemble water balance, focusing on the precipitation and the hydrological response, in terms of both soil moisture dynamics and streamflow in 14 catchments spanning over 42% of the region. The fully coupled approach caused an increase of surface soil moisture and latent heat flux from land in the days preceding the event, partially affecting the lower Planetary Boundary Layer. However, when shoreward moisture transport from surrounding sea rapidly increased becoming the dominant process, only a weak signature of soil moisture contribution could be detected, resulting in only slightly higher precipitation forecast and not clear variation trend of peak flow, even though the latter variable increased up to 10% in some catchments. Overall, this study highlighted a remarkable performance of the medium-range ensemble forecasts, suggesting a profitable use of the fully coupled approach for forecasting purposes in circumstances in which soil moisture dynamics is more relevant and needs to be better addressed.

The Effect of Large-Scale Atmospheric Uncertainty on Streamflow Predictability

2009 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 717-733 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dingchen Hou ◽  
Kenneth Mitchell ◽  
Zoltan Toth ◽  
Dag Lohmann ◽  
Helin Wei
Keyword(s):  
Land Surface ◽  
Land Surface Model ◽  
Coupled System ◽  
River Basins ◽  
Ensemble Forecast ◽  
Hydrological Processes ◽  
Surface Model ◽  
Forecast System ◽  
Ensemble Forecasts ◽  
River Routing

Abstract Hydrological processes are strongly coupled with atmospheric processes related, for example, to precipitation and temperature, and a coupled atmosphere–land surface system is required for a meaningful hydrological forecast. Since the atmosphere is a chaotic system with limited predictability, ensemble forecasts offer a practical tool to predict the future state of the coupled system in a probabilistic fashion, potentially leading to a more complete and informative hydrologic prediction. As ensemble forecasts with coupled meteorological–hydrological models are operationally running at major numerical weather prediction centers, it is currently possible to produce a gridded streamflow prognosis in the form of a probabilistic forecast based on ensembles. Evaluation and improvement of such products require a comprehensive assessment of both components of the coupled system. In this article, the atmospheric component of a coupled ensemble forecasting system is evaluated in terms of its ability to provide reasonable forcing to the hydrological component and the effect of the uncertainty represented in the atmospheric ensemble system on the predictability of streamflow as a hydrological variable. The Global Ensemble Forecast System (GEFS) of NCEP is evaluated following a “perfect hydrology” approach, in which its hydrological component, including the Noah land surface model and attached river routing model, is considered free of errors and the initial conditions in the hydrological variables are assumed accurate. The evaluation is performed over the continental United States (CONUS) domain for various sizes of river basins. The results from the experiment suggest that the coupled system is capable of generating useful gridded streamflow forecast when the land surface model and the river routing model can successfully simulate the hydrological processes, and the ensemble strategy significantly improves the forecast. The expected forecast skill increases with increasing size of the river basin. With the current GEFS system, positive skill in short-range (one to three days) predictions can be expected for all significant river basins; for the major rivers with mean streamflow more than 500 m3 s−1, significant skill can be expected from extended-range (the second week) predictions. Possible causes for the loss of skills, including the existence of systematic error and insufficient ensemble spread, are discussed and possible approaches for the improvement of the atmospheric ensemble forecast system are also proposed.

scholarly journals Evaluation of Probabilistic Medium-Range Temperature Forecasts from the North American Ensemble Forecast System

2009 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doug McCollor ◽  
Roland Stull
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Skill Score ◽  
Ensemble Forecast ◽  
Value Assessment ◽  
Operating Characteristics ◽  
Forecast System ◽  
Forecast Period ◽  
The North ◽  
Medium Range ◽  
The Future

Abstract Ensemble temperature forecasts from the North American Ensemble Forecast System were assessed for quality against observations for 10 cities in western North America, for a 7-month period beginning in February 2007. Medium-range probabilistic temperature forecasts can provide information for those economic sectors exposed to temperature-related business risk, such as agriculture, energy, transportation, and retail sales. The raw ensemble forecasts were postprocessed, incorporating a 14-day moving-average forecast–observation difference, for each ensemble member. This postprocessing reduced the mean error in the sample to 0.6°C or less. It is important to note that the North American Ensemble Forecast System available to the public provides bias-corrected maximum and minimum temperature forecasts. Root-mean-square-error and Pearson correlation skill scores, applied to the ensemble average forecast, indicate positive, but diminishing, forecast skill (compared to climatology) from 1 to 9 days into the future. The probabilistic forecasts were evaluated using the continuous ranked probability skill score, the relative operating characteristics skill score, and a value assessment incorporating cost–loss determination. The full suite of ensemble members provided skillful forecasts 10–12 days into the future. A rank histogram analysis was performed to test ensemble spread relative to the observations. Forecasts are underdispersive early in the forecast period, for forecast days 1 and 2. Dispersion improves rapidly but remains somewhat underdispersive through forecast day 6. The forecasts show little or no dispersion beyond forecast day 6. A new skill versus spread diagram is presented that shows the trade-off between higher skill but low spread early in the forecast period and lower skill but better spread later in the forecast period.

scholarly journals Global Ensemble Predictions of 2009’s Tropical Cyclones Initialized with an Ensemble Kalman Filter

2011 ◽  
Vol 139 (2) ◽  
pp. 668-688 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas M. Hamill ◽  
Jeffrey S. Whitaker ◽  
Michael Fiorino ◽  
Stanley G. Benjamin
Keyword(s):  
Kalman Filter ◽  
Tropical Cyclones ◽  
Ensemble Kalman Filter ◽  
Weather Prediction ◽  
Ensemble Forecast ◽  
Central Pressure ◽  
Ensemble Prediction ◽  
Forecast System ◽  
Ensemble Forecasts ◽  
Track Error

Abstract Verification was performed on ensemble forecasts of 2009 Northern Hemisphere summer tropical cyclones (TCs) from two experimental global numerical weather prediction ensemble prediction systems (EPSs). The first model was a high-resolution version (T382L64) of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Global Forecast System (GFS). The second model was a 30-km version of the experimental NOAA/Earth System Research Laboratory’s Flow-following finite-volume Icosahedral Model (FIM). Both models were initialized with the first 20 members of a 60-member ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) using the T382L64 GFS. The GFS–EnKF assimilated the full observational data stream that was normally assimilated into the NCEP operational Global Statistical Interpolation (GSI) data assimilation, plus human-synthesized “observations” of tropical cyclone central pressure and position produced at the National Hurricane Center and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center. The forecasts from the two experimental ensembles were compared against four operational EPSs from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), NCEP, the Canadian Meteorological Centre (CMC), and the Met Office (UKMO). The errors of GFS–EnKF ensemble track forecasts were competitive with those from the ECMWF ensemble system, and the overall spread of the ensemble tracks was consistent in magnitude with the track error. Both experimental EPSs had much lower errors than the operational NCEP, UKMO, and CMC EPSs, but the FIM–EnKF tracks were somewhat less accurate than the GFS–EnKF. The ensemble forecasts were often stretched in particular directions, and not necessarily along or across track. The better-performing EPSs provided useful information on potential track error anisotropy. While the GFS–EnKF initialized relatively deep vortices by assimilating the TC central pressure estimate, the model storms filled during the subsequent 24 h. Other forecast models also systematically underestimated TC intensity (e.g., maximum forecast surface wind speed). The higher-resolution models generally had less bias. Analyses were conducted to try to understand whether the additional central pressure observation, the EnKF, or the extra resolution was most responsible for the decrease in track error of the experimental Global Ensemble Forecast System (GEFS)–EnKF over the operational NCEP. The assimilation of the additional TC observations produced only a small change in deterministic track forecasts initialized with the GSI. The T382L64 GFS–EnKF ensemble was used to initialize a T126L28 ensemble forecast to facilitate a comparison with the operational NCEP system. The T126L28 GFS–EnKF EPS track forecasts were dramatically better than the NCEP operational, suggesting the positive impact of the EnKF, perhaps through improved steering flow.

scholarly journals Evaluation and Benchmarking of Operational Short-Range Ensemble Mean and Median Streamflow Forecasts for the Ohio River Basin

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (10) ◽  
pp. 1689-1706 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas E. Adams III ◽  
Randel Dymond
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Lead Time ◽  
Geographic Location ◽  
Ensemble Forecast ◽  
Precipitation Forecast ◽  
Ohio River ◽  
Forecast System ◽  
Ensemble Forecasts ◽  
Meteorological Model ◽  
Ensemble Mean

Abstract This study presents findings from a real-time forecast experiment that compares legacy deterministic hydrologic stage forecasts to ensemble mean and median stage forecasts from the NOAA/NWS Meteorological Model-Based Ensemble Forecast System (MMEFS). The NOAA/NWS Ohio River Forecast Center (OHRFC) area of responsibility defines the experimental region. Real-time forecasts from subbasins at 54 forecast point locations, ranging in drainage area, geographic location within the Ohio River valley, and watershed response time serve as the basis for analyses. In the experiment, operational hydrologic forecasts, with a 24-h quantitative precipitation forecast (QPF) and forecast temperatures, are compared to MMEFS hydrologic ensemble mean and median forecasts, with model forcings from the NOAA/NWS National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) North American Ensemble Forecast System (NAEFS), over the period from 30 November 2010 through 24 May 2012. Experiments indicate that MMEFS ensemble mean and median forecasts exhibit lower errors beginning at about lead time 90 h when forecasts at all locations are aggregated. With fast response basins that peak at ≤24 h, ensemble mean and median forecasts exhibit lower errors much earlier, beginning at about lead time 36 h, which suggests the viability of using MMEFS ensemble forecasts as an alternative to OHRFC legacy forecasts. Analyses show that ensemble median forecasts generally exhibit smaller errors than ensemble mean forecasts for all stage ranges. Verification results suggest that OHRFC MMEFS NAEFS ensemble forecasts are reasonable, but needed improvements are identified.

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