Mesoscale Model Evaluation Testbed

Overview

In order to assist the research community with conducting detailed case study testing of newly developed techniques, the DTC has established and is maintaining the Mesoscale Model Evaluation Testbed (MMET). The motivation of MMET is to assist the research community in efficiently demonstrating the merits of a new development that could positively impact an operational configuration in the future.

MMET provides a variety of operational model and observation data sets for a number of routine and high-impact cases. Baseline results for select operational models (i.e. NAM, RAP and HRRR) are also produced by the DTC and made available through MMET. Through the common framework provided by MMET, researchers have the ability to perform direct comparisons between multiple innovations tested by the research community and/or against the baseline operational results established by the DTC.

MMET has also been established to support the broader goal of streamlining the path to potential operational use for promising new science innovations developed in the research community. The testing protocol document details a three stage process of testing conducted by the research community, DTC and, ultimately, operational centers. It is believed that, with better coordination among the NWP community as a whole, major benefits towards improving model physics can be realized, resulting in more accurate and reliable operational NWP forecasts.