NOUS41 KWBC
281900
PNSWSH
Public
Information Statement, Comment Request
National Weather
Service Headquarters, Washington, DC
300 PM EDT Thu
Jun 28 2012
To: Subscribers:
-Family of Services
-NOAA Weather Wire Service
-Emergency Managers Weather
Information Network
-NOAAPORT
Other NWS Partners, Users and
Employees
From: Geoff DiMego
Chief, Mesoscale Modeling Branch
NCEP/Environmental Modeling Center
Subject: Soliciting Public Comments through August
12, 2012,
on Removal of the Obsolete RUC
Surface Analysis
The National
Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) is
seeking comments
through August 12, 2012, on discontinuing the
legacy analysis
system known as Rapid Update Cycle Surface
(RUCS), also
known as RUC Surface Assimilation System (RSAS). All
output products
from this system would also be discontinued.
This system is
based on old technology and analysis grids of
equal or better
resolution and quality are readily available (see
below). In
addition, NCEP wants to conserve resources, not only
the compute
resource, but also the personnel resource needed to
port the code to the
new Weather and Climate Operational
Supercomputing
System.
The RUCS analysis
uses optimum interpolation in 2-Dimensions to
update its hourly
products. This is done multiple times
each
hour with the
latest result overwriting the previous result.
Output products
are for 12 surface parameters on four grids with
15, 40, 60 and 80
km spacing. The 15 km grid is polar-
stereographic,
covers North America and is GRIB grid #88.
The
40 km grid is
Lambert conformal, covers the Contiguous United
States (CONUS)
and is GRIB grid #212. The 60 km grid is
polar-
stereographic,
covers CONUS and is GRIB grid #87. The 80 km grid
is Lambert
conformal, covers CONUS and is GRIB grid #211.
Three operational
systems within the NCEP production suite
produce similar
analyses of surface parameters using the state-
of-the-art
Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation (GSI) analysis
scheme. These
systems are:
1. North American
Mesoscale (NAM) at 12 km, including NAM’s CONUS
nest at 4 km,
NAM’s Alaska nest at 6 km, NAM’s Hawaii nest at 3
km, and -NAM’s
Puerto Rico nest at 3 km;
2. The 13 km
North American Rapid Refresh (RAP), which replaced
the CONUS-based
Rapid Update Cycle (RUC) in May 2012
3. Real Time
Mesoscale Analysis (RTMA) at 2.5 km over CONUS,
Hawaii, Guam and
Puerto Rico, and at 3 km over Alaska.
Both the RAP and
RTMA are updated hourly, and both RAP and NAM
use GSI in
3-Dimensions.
The RUCS output
is disseminated via the NWS and NCEP FTP servers.
No RUCS products are
sent on NOAAPORT. Details about the exact
RUCS files and
the products they contain that are being
considered for
removal can be found at
http://www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/pmb/products/rsas/
More information
about the NAM, RAP and RTMA products that are
available as
replacements can be found at
http://www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/pmb/products/nam/
http://www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/pmb/products/rap/
http://www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/pmb/products/rtma/
NWS will evaluate
all comments to determine whether to proceed
with this change.
If approved, a TIN will be issued containing
implementation
dates.
Send comments on
this proposal by August 12, 2012 to:
Geoff DiMego
NWS/NCEP Environmental Modeling Center
Camp Springs , MD
geoff.dimego@noaa.gov
or
Rebecca Cosgrove
NWS/NCEP Central Operations
Camp Spring, MD
rebecca.cosgrove@noaa.gov
National Public
Information Statements are online at:
http://www.weather.gov/os/notif.htm
$$