Validating mountain-wave predictions from the United States High-Resolution, Rapid-Refresh (HRRR) numerical weather prediction (NWP) model

Authors

  • Edward Hindman Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Department The City College of New York New York, NY

Abstract

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has developed the HRRR NWP model and made the predictions available, free-of-charge, at rapidrefresh.noaa.gov/hrrr/. The model is sufficiently high-resolution to predict mountain waves. The waves appear in the ‘max updraft’ maps as linear and quasi-linear regions. In this study, glider flight recorder data from eastern US wave flights are compared with these regions. It is shown the regions, indeed, contained mountain waves. A number of the flights achieved the 5-km altitude-gain for the F´ed´eration A´eronautique Internationale (FAI) Diamond Badge. The predicted updraft speeds, on average, were consistent with the updraft speeds calculated from the flight recorder data.

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Published

2020-11-07

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Section

Articles