This report made recommendations on numerical environmental prediction. Emphasizing that the US is no longer a world leader in operational numerical environmental prediction. Optimistically, the report identified potential for improvements in this field because of the extensive research community in the US. Key suggestions included reducing complexity, improving decision making, unifying efforts, and leveraging the external community.

UCACN is the UCAR Community Advisory Committee for NCEP (National Centers for Environmental Prediction)

This report was the first formal acknowledgement that changes need to be made in NOAA/NWS/NCEP operations.

This task force was charged with producing a strategy that would effectively guide NOAA towards a unified modeling approach. Ten to fifteen members were nominated by the NOAA Research Council (now the NOAA Science Council) to represent NOAA. 

See Paper Release: High-level NOAA Unified Modeling Overview for their findings.

A dynamical core test group (DTG) was created that included federal, academic, and subject matter experts to conduct an assessment and provide recommendations (more information). A dynamic core is the engine that drives a numerical weather prediction model. The dynamic core selected, Finite-Volume on a Cubed-Sphere (FV3), was developed at NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL). The FV3 dycore was selected because it can run at a higher resolution, and zoom in on smaller storm systems. This will help improve forecast predictions in the long term. Read more in the comprehensive report: Dynamical Core Evaluation Test Report for NOAA’s Next Generation Global Prediction System (NGGPS).

The goal of this legislation was to improve NOAA’s weather research through investments in observational, computing, and modeling capabilities. It also intended to support improvements in weather forecasting and prediction of high impact weather events, and expand commercial opportunities for the provision of weather data.

In 2018, Congress passed the National Integrated Drought Information System Reauthorization Act. This law added language to the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act (WRFIA) that was passed in 2017 and called for the creation of an Earth Prediction Innovation Center (EPIC) to “advanc[e] weather modeling skill, reclaiming and maintaining international leadership in the area of numerical weather prediction, and improv[e] the transition of research into operations.”

In recognition of the many contributions of Dr. William (Bill) Lapenta to advance NOAA science and services and his dedication to training the next generation of scientists, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) established the William M. Lapenta Student Internship Program in 2019. The program builds on the highly successful National Weather Service (NWS) National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Internship which Bill created in 2017.

The UFS Steering Committee (UFS-SC) was created to govern the content of the community-based UFS. This group is responsible for approving strategic direction and plans for the UFS as well as recommending content and a development path for the UFS production suite.

A community-based, coupled Earth modeling system, the UFS, is under active development to support the Weather Enterprise and to be the source system for NOAA's operational numerical weather prediction forecasts. The UFS numerical applications span local to global domains and predictive timescales from sub-hourly analyses to seasonal predictions. The first application released was the UFS Medium-Range Weather (MRW) Application, which targets atmospheric behavior out to approximately two weeks. The release included the Finite-Volume Cubed-Sphere (FV3) dynamical core, the Common Community Physics Package (CCPP) with four supported physics suites, including the current operational and developmental Global Forecast System (GFS) physics suites, pre-processing utilities, the Unified Post Processor (UPP), and a workflow to build and run the global forecast system. To ensure architectural flexibility and portability, the UFS uses modernized software and infrastructure, providing an opportunity for all parties to share and contribute information in a consistent and up-to-date manner.

From anniversary report: “The UFS-R2O project was conceived with a focus on leveraging the nascent UFS community to build two new operational predictions systems from the ground up - a six-way global coupled (atmosphere/ocean/land/sea-ice/wave/aerosol) ensemble system for medium-range and seasonal to sub-seasonal (S2S) prediction, and a regional, high-resolution hourly-updating and convection-allowing ensemble system for prediction of severe weather. The project began in July 2020 as collaboration between the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Environmental Modeling Center, 8 NOAA research labs, The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), the Naval Research Lab and 6 universities and Cooperative Institutes

Dr. Neil Jacobs, UFS Chief Scientist publishes a paper in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (BAMS) to present the need for open-source community modeling.

This symposium is an opportunity for the modeling research community to share information about the latest developments and how these innovations advance community modeling systems’ capabilities. This symposium is hosted annually at the American Meteorological Society (AMS) Annual Conference.

The EPIC program office and the UFS community host the first annual Unifying Innovations in Forecasting Capabilities Workshop (UIFCW). This workshop aims to bring together scientists and stakeholders from across the Weather Enterprise to address several key topics related to the UFS and community modeling.

The purpose of this Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) is to convey to the scientific community that, for numerical modeling-based activities, NSF's Physical and Dynamic Meteorology (PDM) program welcomes proposals that make use of any modeling system that will advance the relevant science.

This letter is significant as it signals support of the Unified Forecast System by NSF and promotes further incorporation of modeling research in an academic setting.

The motivation for developing this strategy is to leverage emerging technologies and unify modeling capabilities to increase collaboration, both within and beyond NOAA, to achieve the NOAA mission.