Use of HPC to Provide Operational Mesoscale Meteorological Support for ATEC Test Ranges

A variety of high-resolution atmospheric-model applications are running on the high performance computer cluster at Dugway Proving Ground (DPG), with the objective of providing accurate weather information to forecasters, test managers and planners, and decision-support staff at ATEC test ranges. The foundation of these applications is the 4D Weather (4DWX) forecasting system, which is built upon the Real-Time Four Dimensional Data Assimilation (RTFDDA) process and the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) and Penn State University/NCAR Mesoscale Model version 5 (MM5) forecasting models. The RTFDDA has been expanded for generating ensemble analyses and probabilistic forecasts (the E-RTFDDA system), and a 30-member E-RTFDDA system has been implemented and operated on the HPC cluster at DPG since August 2007. The system contains three nested domains with a fine mesh having a 3.3-km grid increment. The system generates 48-h forecasts every 6 hours. E-RTFDDA design features, capabilities, and real-time operation at DPG are introduced. This application, crucially depending on high performance computerpsilas computing power, is unique advanced technology that can serve as a national asset to support homeland security and homeland defense.