MESO, Inc. MM5 Real Time Colorado Forecast
Current MESO MM5 runs are initialized at: 21-APR-1999 12 UTC
Quickly go to:
Coarse Grid Forecast
Nested Grid Forecast
Point Site Forecasts
Vertical Cross-Sections
Coarse (30 km resolution) and nested grid domains (10 km resolution):
Grid configuration: The coarse domain has 71 x 58 points horizontally with a 30 km
grid spacing. The nested domain has 52 x 49 points horizontally, with a 10 km grid spacing.
Both domains have 25 layers in the vertical, with the model top at 75 mb. Both domains
are run for 36 hours. The nested domain land surface characteristics (terrain, land/water,
sea surface temperature, land use, soil moisture, snow cover) are all interpolated directly
to the nested grid scale; as a result the nested grid has features consistent with that scale and
is not just an interpolation from the coarse grid information. The coarse grid timestep is 90
secs, and the fine grid timestep is 30 secs.
Grid 1 configuration
Grid 1 topography
Grid 1 topography (alternate graphic)
Grid 1 land use
Grid 1 land/water distribution
Grid 1 sea surface temperatures
Grid 2 configuration
Grid 2 topography
Grid 2 topography (alternate graphic
Grid 2 land use
Grid 2 land/water distribution
Grid 2 sea surface temperatures
Model configuration: NCAR's MM5v2 version 2.9
Mixed phase microphysics (coarse and fine grids)
Kain-Fritsch cumulus parameterization (coarse and fine grids)
MRF PBL (coarse and fine grids)
Cloud-scheme radiation (coarse and fine grids)
Radiative top boundary condition (coarse and fine grids)
2-way interactive nesting
Initialization: The model is initialized at 1200 UTC. The latest (1200 UTC)
Early Eta run (Eta 211 grid, grid has 80 km data resolution, actual
model run has 32 km resolution) is used as the first-guess. If the Eta run
is unavailable, the AVN run can be used as the first-guess. The 1200 UTC rawinsonde and
surface METAR observations are used to enhance the first-guess using NCAR's MM5
RAWINS package with the multi-quadratic analysis scheme.
The Eta (or AVN) forecast fields at 06, 12, 18, 24, 30, and 36 hrs are used for the lateral boundary
conditions. The fine grid surface
characteristic fields (terrain, land/water, vegetation, SST) are interpolated
to the fine grid directly from the original data. The fine grid initial
fields are interpolated directly to the fine grid (not from the coarse grid).
Soil moisture and snow cover: The soil moisture availability is updated during the model run, using
the modifications provided by Jim Bresch at NCAR/MMM. The soil moisture
availability (SMA) is initialized for each run using the Eta 12 fcst SMA from the previous
Eta run (the previous 12Z run). The snow cover (just yes/no, not snow
depth) is updated during the model run using the IFSNOW option in the model.
The snow cover is initialized from the most recently available NESDIS IMS snow
cover analysis.
Current MESO MM5 runs are initialized at: 21-APR-1999 12 UTC
NCEP model used for first-guess is ETA from 99042112
Grid 1 Animations: Animations behave much better now! Click on the link to load the animation. It will keep
looping until you click on your browser's "stop".
Animation of Grid 1 MSLP
Animation of Grid 1 Vis Sat View
Animation of Grid 1 Sfc T/Winds
Animation of Grid 1 Sfc Theta-E
Animation of Grid 1 850 Hts, Winds
Animation of Grid 1 6-hrly Precip
Animation of Grid 1 Total Precip
Animation of Grid 1 Sfc Winds and 6-hrly Precip
3-D Grid 1 Cloud Animation
3-D Grid 1 Cloud and Sfc T Animation
Fly-by of 3-D Grid 1 Cloud Animation!
Grid 1 Vertical Cross-Sections
Grid 1 Tabular Site Forecasts
Grid 2 Animations: Animations behave much better now! Click on the link to load the animation. It will keep
looping until you click on your browser's "stop".
Animation of Grid 2 MSLP
Animation of Grid 2 Vis Sat View
Animation of Grid 2 Sfc T/Winds
Animation of Grid 2 Sfc Theta-E
Animation of Grid 2 850 Hts, Winds
Animation of Grid 2 800 conv, Winds
Animation of Grid 2 3-hrly Precip
Animation of Grid 2 Total Precip
Animation of Grid 2 Sfc Winds and 3-hrly Precip
Animation of Grid 2 100/500 Thk and 3-hrly Precip
3-D Grid 2 Cloud Animation
3-D Grid 2 Cloud and Sfc T Animation
Fly-by of 3-D Grid 2 Cloud Animation!
Grid 2 Vertical Cross-Sections
Grid 2 Tabular Site Forecasts
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For more information, or if you have any problems with this sites, please contact jennifer@meso.com