Mesoscale Modeling Branch News

Updated: 03/16/04

12Z 16 March 2004

  An upgrade to the Eta was implemented today, featuring changes to the 3DVAR assimilation system, the land-sfc model, and the post processor. Check out the information in the Eta change log.

12Z 10 March 2004

  A new page with many convective forecasting parameters from the RUC model is now available here.

12Z 08 July 2003

  A major upgrade to the Eta model including the extension of the 06/18Z cycles to 84 hours and the addition of hourly output was made. Check out the information in the Eta change log.

12Z 30 April 2003

  A new page with many convective forecasting parameters from the Eta model is now available here.

12Z 30 January 2003

  Eta precipitation type meteograms are now available. Check them out here.

12Z 09 July 2002

  12-km TILED Eta output is now available. Read about it here.

12Z 02 July 2002

  Three new output fields have been added to the Eta model to assist convective forecasting. Read the info here. Check out an example of the differences in the CAPE computations.

12Z 01 July 2002

  Eta forecast soundings are now available on the web.

12Z 19 June 2002

  A couple of crisis changes have been made to the Eta. Check out the Eta change log for details.

12Z 7 May 2002

  RUC forecast meteograms are now availble. The graphical displays are available for over 600 sites and are updated every 3 hours. Longer-range Eta forecast meteograms are still available.

12Z 17 April 2002

  The 20-km RUC has been implemented. Get more info from FSL.

12Z 27 November 2001

  The Eta-12 has been implemented. In addition to increased resolution, it features a new cloud microphysics scheme and 3DVAR improvements. Check out the TPB .

12Z 24 July 2001

  The land-sfc physics and 3DVAR initialization in the Eta model have been upgraded, and the assimilation of precipitation has begun. Check out the TPB.

12Z 17 April 2001

  The 00Z and 12Z cycles of the Eta model are now extended to 84 hours. Check out a CAFTI presentation for more information.

00Z 01 February 2001

  Check out the new web page showing experimental HIGH-RESOLUTION NESTED ETA RUNS.

12Z 30 January 2001

  The Sea-Surface Temperature Analysis in the Eta has changed. Read about the implementation here .

12Z 26 September 2000

  The Eta-22 has been implemented. Read the TPB.

12Z 29 March 2000

  Several changes were made to the Eta, and the 00Z and 12Z runs have been extended to 60 hours. Read the TPB.

12Z 15 September 1999

  Eta forecast meteograms are now available on the web. Read the announcement here.

12Z 25 July 1999

  Changes were made to the Eta BUFR output.

12Z 18 June 1999

  The EMC QPF verification page is back up and running, including regional scores.

12Z 25 May 1999

  The workstation version of the Eta is now available.

12Z 13 May 1999

  The 3DVAR analysis was changed to improve the mass/wind balance at the slight cost of reducing the fit to radiosonde data. Tests with this change resulted in much improved forecasts. More details can be found in the 3DVAR TPB. Results from a retrospective parallel test can be found here. You can look at results from individual forecasts from this period here.

18Z 03 Mar 1999

  New 32km output in the form of tiles from grid #221 are now available on the ftpprd.ncep.noaa.gov server.

12Z 16 Feb 1999

  32km Puerto Rico grid #237 has been added to the Eta output.

12Z 23 Dec 1998

  The previous change (3 Nov 98) to the RH calculation in the post processor (which had computed RH with respect to ice saturation if ice occurs) has been removed. Now the RH is always computed with respect to water. This is inconsistent with the way it is computed in the model to predict condensation, and will cause lower values of RH at higher levels or levels where the temperature is cold.