2.4 Hurricane WRF: 2013 operational implementation and community support

Bernardet, Ligia, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Cooperative Institute for Research in the Environmental Sciences (CIRES), V. Tallapragada, NOAA, S. Bao, NOAA and CIRES, Y. Kwon, S. Trahan, M. Tong, NOAA and IM Systems Group, Inc., Q. Liu, NOAA, X. Zhang, NOAA and University of Miami, S. Gopalakrishnan, NOAA, R. Yablonsky, University of Rhode Island, T. Marchok, NOAA

The Hurricane WRF model (HWRF) is one of the various applications of the WRF model in National Weather Service operations. Its main customer is the National Hurricane Center, which uses HWRF as numerical guidance for tropical cyclone forecasting. The model has a sophisticated initialization process, which involves cycling the vortex from the previous HWRF forecast and assimilating observations using a hybrid three-dimensional variational data assimilation package. The Princeton Ocean Model for Tropical Cyclones (POM-TC), which uses a feature-based initialization procedure, is run coupled with the WRF model to represent important ocean-atmosphere feedback processes.

In this presentation, we will give an overview of the 2013 HWRF implementation and present the changes that were put in effect since last year. Additionally, we will discuss the HWRF community support that is provided by the Developmental Testbed Center (www.dtcenter.org/HurrWRF/users).