MASS
Modeling System Overview
Latest
Release MASS 6.2
The
Mesocale Atmospheric Simulation System (MASS) is a limited-area
terrain-following sigma-coordinate model that be run either in hydrostatic
and nonhydrostatic mode, designed to simulate or predict mesoscale
and regional-scale atmospheric circulations. It has been developed,
maintained and improved by MESO, Inc.
The
latest version of MASS, version 6.0, has interactive multiple-nest
capability, nonhydrostatic dynamics allowing simulations on the
order of 1 km or greater, a four-dimensional data-assimilation capability,
four levels of microphysics and several convective parameterization
schemes.
Features
of MASS
Globally re-locatable
- Three map
projections:
- Polar
stereographic
- Lambert
conformal
- Mercator
- Standard
latitude for the true latitude is settable for each projection.
- Variable
resolution for various surface characteristic data such as terrain
elevation, land-water, landuse, soil type, and vegetation density,
are available.
Flexible, interactive
multiple-nesting capability
- Can be run
in both 2-way and 1-way nesting mode:
- 2-way:
multiple nests and moving nests
- 1-way:
fine-mesh model driven by coarse-mesh model
- Nest domain
can start and stop at any time.
- Nest terrain
file may be input at the time of nest start-up in the model.
MASS can be
configured to run from global scale to cloud scale.
Real-data inputs
- Use routine
observations
- Upperair
and surface reports, including wind, temperature, relative humidity,
sea-level pressure, and sea-surface temperature
- Couple with
global models and other regional models
- Use
other model's output either as first guess for objective analysis,
or as lateral boundary conditions, e.g., NCEP and ECMWF global
analysis, NCEP/NCAR and ECMWF reanalysis, NCEP ETA model.
Nonhydrostatic and hydrostatic options
Terrain-following vertical coordinates
Choices of advanced physical parameterization
Four-dimensional data assimilation system via nudging
MASS modeling system runs on virtually any platform:
- Cray, SGI,
IBM, DEC, Sun, HP, and PCs running Linux.
Well-documented
User-support available |
