Through collaborations partially funded by the Alaska Space Grant Program, SPoRT has been closely working with Dr. Don Morton at the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks to bring retrieved profiles from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) into an operational forecast model. Don works very closely with Alaska NWS WFOs by providing an operational version of the High Resolution Rapid Refresh configured for an Alaska domain (HRRRAK) to help improve short-term forecasts. SPoRT has provided near-real-time AIRS retrieved profiles and guidance on configuring and running the Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation (GSI) data assimilation system to most effectively bring the observations into the operational forecasting system. Testing of the impact of the AIRS profiles within the system will continue for a few weeks, after which forecasts including AIRS profiles will be provided each day to Alaska region WFOs. An example of the initial analysis differences for 850 hPa temperatures from last Friday can be seen below. SPoRT will continue to work with Dr. Morton to evaluate and validate the impact of AIRS on HRRRAK short-term forecasts.
Initial impacts from assimilated AIRS profiles provided in real-time for input into the HRRRAK for the 850 hPa temperature analysis on 30 March 2012.
The Wide World of SPoRT 