Ming Hu authored and/or contributed to the following articles/publications.
Introduction to Community Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation System (GSI) and its User Support
Over the last three years, the Developmental Testbed Center (DTC) has made a significant investment transitioning the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) operational data assimilation system, Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation (GSI), to a community resource. The DTC, as of the summer of 2010, has released two versions of commun...
Hourly data assimilation with the Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation for the Rapid Refresh
The Rapid Refresh (RR) model and analysis system, currently under development at the Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL), will replace the Rapid Update Cycle (RUC) in 2009. The RUC has been operational at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) since 1994. It is a high-frequency (hourly) data assimilation and prediction syst...
A new hybrid, sigma-pressure vertical coordinate was recently added to the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model in an effort to reduce numerical noise in the model equations near complex terrain. Testing of this hybrid, terrain-following coordinate was undertaken in the WRF-based Rapid Refresh (RAP) and High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRR...
A regional ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) system is established for potential Rapid Refresh (RAP) operational application. The system borrows data processing and observation operators from the gridpoint statistical interpolation (GSI), and precalculates observation priors using the GSI. The ensemble square root Kalman filter (EnSRF) algorithm is ...
Institutions Earth System Research Laboratory - ESRL National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - NOAA
A coupled ensemble square root filter–three-dimensional ensemble-variational hybrid (EnSRF–En3DVar) data assimilation (DA) system is developed for the operational Rapid Refresh (RAP) forecasting system. The En3DVar hybrid system employs the extended control variable method, and is built on the NCEP operational gridpoint statistical interpolation...
Institution National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - NOAA
Stratiform Cloud-Hydrometeor Assimilation for HRRR and RAP Model Short-Range Weather Prediction
Accurate cloud and precipitation forecasts are a fundamental component of short-range data assimilation/model prediction systems such as the NOAA 3-km High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) or the 13-km Rapid Refresh (RAP). To reduce cloud and precipitation spinup problems, a nonvariational assimilation technique for stratiform clouds was develope...
Institution National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - NOAA
Accuracy of cloud predictions in numerical weather models can considerably impact ozone (O3) forecast skill. This study assesses the benefits in surface O3 predictions of using the Rapid Refresh (RAP) forecasting system that assimilates clouds as well as conventional meteorological variables at hourly time scales. We evaluate and compare the WRF...
Institutions National Center for Atmospheric Research - NCAR National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - NOAA
A regional ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) data assimilation (DA) and forecast system was recently established based on the Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation (GSI) analysis system. The EnKF DA system was tested with continuous three-hourly updated cycles followed by 18-h deterministic forecasts from every three-hourly ensemble mean analysis. Ini...
Institution National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - NOAA
The Rapid Refresh (RAP) is an hourly updated regional meteorological data assimilation/short-range model forecast system running operationally at NOAA/National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) using the community Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation analysis system (GSI). This paper documents the application of the GSI three-dimensiona...
Institutions Earth System Research Laboratory - ESRL National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - NOAA
This study describes the initial application of radiance bias correction and channel selection in the hourly updated Rapid Refresh model. For this initial application, data from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) are used; this dataset gives atmospheric temperature and water vapor information at higher vertical resolution and accuracy than ...
Institution National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - NOAA
Satellite Radiance Data Assimilation within the Hourly Updated Rapid Refresh
Assimilation of satellite radiance data in limited-area, rapidly updating weather model/assimilation systems poses unique challenges compared to those for global model systems. Principal among these is the severe data restriction posed by the short data cutoff time. Also, the limited extent of the model domain reduces the spatial extent of satel...
Institution National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - NOAA
This study assesses the impact of assimilating pseudo-observations for water vapor mass derived from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites GOES-16 lightning data on short-term quantitative precipitation forecasts (QPFs) over the contiguous United States (CONUS), with an emphasis given to regions characterized by an overall poor ...
Institution National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - NOAA
The Community Radiative Transfer Model (CRTM), a sensor-based radiative transfer model, has been used within the Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation (GSI) system for directly assimilating radiances from infrared and microwave sensors. We conducted numerical experiments to illustrate how including aerosol radiative effects in CRTM calculations ch...
Institution National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - NOAA
A North American Hourly Assimilation and Model Forecast Cycle: The Rapid Refresh
The Rapid Refresh (RAP), an hourly-updated assimilation and model forecast system, replaced the Rapid Update Cycle (RUC) as an operational regional analysis and forecast system among the suite of models at the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) in 2012. The need for an effective hourly-updated assimilation and modeling sys...
Institution National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - NOAA
Bridging Research to Operations Transitions: Status and Plans of Community GSI
With a goal of improving operational numerical weather prediction (NWP), the Developmental Testbed Center (DTC) has been working with operational centers, including, among others, the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA),...
Institution National Center for Atmospheric Research - NCAR
For a variational data assimilation (DA) system that assimilates radiance observations, the simulated brightness temperature (BT) at the top of the atmosphere and the corresponding Jacobians carried out by the radiance observation operator are needed information. Previous studies reported that the incorporation of aerosol information into the ra...
Institution National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - NOAA
The 13-km Rapid Refresh (RAP) and 3-km convective-allowing High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) are hourly updating weather forecast models that use a specially configured version of the Advanced Research WRF (ARW) model and assimilate many novel and most conventional observation types on an hourly basis using Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation...
Institution National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - NOAA
An operational upgrade of the RAP and HRRR model systems at NCEP is planned for August 2016. This coordinated upgrade (RAP version 3 and HRRR version 2, RAPv3/HRRRv2) includes many enhancements to the data assimilation, model, and post-processing formulations that result in significant improvements to nearly all forecast aspects, including uppe...
Institution National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - NOAA
A technique for model initialization using three-dimensional radar reflectivity data has been developed and applied within the NOAA 13-km Rapid Refresh (RAP) and 3-km High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) regional forecast systems. This technique enabled the first assimilation of radar reflectivity data for operational NOAA forecast models, criti...
Institution National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - NOAA
The High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) is a convection-allowing implementation of the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF-ARW) with hourly data assimilation that covers the conterminous United States and Alaska and runs in real time at the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Prediction. Implemented operationally at NOAA/NCEP in 201...
Institution National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - NOAA
The High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) is a convection-allowing implementation of the Advanced Weather Research and Forecast model (WRF-ARW) that covers the conterminous United States and Alaska and runs hourly (for CONUS; every three hours for Alaska) in real time at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction. The high-resolution forec...
Institution National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - NOAA
Land–Snow Data Assimilation Including a Moderately Coupled Initialization Method Applied to NWP
Initialization methods are needed for geophysical components of Earth system prediction models. These methods are needed from medium-range to decadal predictions and also for short-range Earth system forecasts in support of safety (e.g., severe weather), economic (e.g., energy), and other applications. Strongly coupled land–atmosphere data assim...
Institution National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - NOAA