Successes and Future of the Joint Weather Research and Forecasting Model Distributed Center Project

In 2003 AFWA and FNMOC were awarded identical IBM P-655 computer systems by HPCMP. These systems, which contain a total of 192 processors, 384 GB of memory and 6 TB of disk space, support the Joint Operational Testbed for the WRF Modeling Framework, hereafter referred to as the distributed center (DC) project. The project's objectives are to conduct operational tests of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR's) Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, determine WRF configurations that best meet the unique mesoscale numerical weather prediction (NWP) requirements of the Department of Defense (DoD), develop and test mesoscale ensemble forecasting (EF) methods in an operational environment, and evaluate the applicability of grid computing to the stringent and unique requirements of NWP. With these resources Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA) has achieved the nation's first operational implementation (scheduled for July, 2006) of WRF, a next-generation, limited-area forecast. Without this hardware AFWA would still be years away from Initial Operating Capability with WRF. In addition, over the past eighteen months, these resources have been critical to efforts by AFWA and NCAR in optimizing WRF performance