The Unified Forecast System (UFS) is a framework for modeling Earth Systems. It is a community based system, where the community is the Weather Enterprise, composed of researchers, developers, and users from NOAA, educational institutions, federal agencies, and the private sector. The UFS supports research and development across the enterprise, inspires application-based research, and accelerates the transition of research innovations to forecasting operations in NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS).
The UFS contains several essential components for modeling Earth Systems. The foundation of the framework is a library of coupled numerical models that simulate the Earth’s physical processes. The system also includes pre-processing components for a wide variety of observation types and algorithms for assimilating observational data into a form that can be used to initialize either single-member or ensemble prediction systems. In addition, the system provides post-processing tools to generate deterministic and/or probabilistic predictions as well as verification and validation of products.
The UFS also has configurable infrastructure, which can be tailored to optimize performance for specific applications based on common component-coupling tools and workflow software. Examples of current UFS-based operational NWS applications include Medium-Range Weather, Hurricanes, and Air Quality, while several other specific applications are in later stages of development.
UFS Teams
The UFS teams and working groups serve a fundamental role in the UFS community. They are a diverse group of subject matter experts who provide input and insight on an ongoing basis. They also developed and maintained the UFS Strategic Implementation Plan (SIP). They collaborate closely with the UFS Steering Committee (a part of the UFS Governance) and
the NOAA Program Offices, which fund and support the UFS. They are dynamic because they evolve, with the UFS as needs change.
- Application Teams
- Medium-Range Weather (MRW)
- Sub-seasonal to Seasonal (S2S)
- Hurricane
- Short-Range Weather/Convection Allowing Model (SRW/CAM)
- Space Weather
- Coastal
- Air Quality
- Cross-Cutting Teams
- Verification and Validation (V&V)
- Systems Architecture and Infrastructure
- Communications and Outreach (C&O)
- Component Working Group Teams
- Aerosols and Atmospheric Composition
- Data Assimilation (DA) and Ensembles
- Dynamics & Nesting
- Land
- Post Processing (PP)
- Physics
- Marine
