The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model is a next-generation mesoscale numerical weather prediction system designed to serve both operational forecasting and atmospheric research needs. It features multiple dynamical cores, a 3-dimensional variational (3DVAR) data assimilation system, and a software architecture allowing for computational parallelism and system extensibility. WRF is suitable for a broad spectrum of applications across scales ranging from meters to thousands of kilometers.
The effort to develop WRF has been a collaborative partnership, principally among the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) and the Forecast Systems Laboratory (FSL), the Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA), the Naval Research Laboratory, the University of Oklahoma, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). WRF allows researchers to conduct simulations that reflect real data or idealized configurations.
WRF provides operational forecasting with a flexible and efficient model computationally, while offering advances in physics, numerics, and data assimilation that the research community has contributed.
WRF has a rapidly growing community of users, and workshops and tutorials are held each year at NCAR. WRF is currently in operational use at NCEP, AFWA, and other centers. This site provides information on the WRF effort and its organization, references to projects and forecasting involving WRF, and links to the WRF users’ page, real-time applications, and WRF-related events.
A skew-T log-P diagram is one of four thermodynamic diagrams commonly used in weather analysis and forecasting. In 1947, Nicolai Herlofson proposed a modification to the emagram that allows straight, horizontal isobars and provides for a large angle between isotherms and dry adiabats, similar to that in the tephigram.
The skew-T diagram related to the city of Naples, Campania, Italy, the city of the 38th America’s Cup.
