NWS' New Vetting Process to Prioritize Analysis and
Nowcast (0-18 Hour Forecast) Tool Development for Meeting US Forecast Service
Needs (180)
Young-Joon Kim, NOAA/NWS/AFS,
Silver Spring, MD
Mark Tew, NOAA/NWS/AFS
Abstract:
The National Weather Service
(NWS) recently created the Analysis and Nowcast Branch (ANB) within its
Analyze, Forecast and Support Office. This new Branch has two primary goals: 1)
collect field needs and develop requirements in order to identify and narrow
forecasting gaps in the near term (0-18 hour) time frame, and 2) develop and
implement a vetting process to recommend innovations to improve critical
analysis and nowcast capabilities to meet the needs of NWS forecasters. This
new program will lead to improvement of the provision of Impact-based Decision
Support Services as called for in the Weather Research and Forecasting
Innovation Act of 2017 (P.L. 115-25).
ANB is taking a science-based
approach to developing requirements for Analysis and Nowcast tools
operationally used by NWS to systematically meet the needs of field
forecasters. We will demonstrate the new approach by taking the NWS' primary
surface analysis system, RTMA/URMA/RUA, as an example.
We will also present our new
approach to finding, validating and prioritizing new or improved (as well as
existing) tools, including models, systems and methods, spanning the 0-18 hour
forecast range. This approach will enable prioritization of future investments
for transitioning to field offices for operational use in coordination with NWS'
Office of Science and Technology Integration.
The interactions with NWA
members at the meeting will provide us with valuable input for deriving the
operational requirements for the 0-18 hour forecast period.