Preparation of Surface Analysis/Forecast at NOAA NWS

[jgf]

How automated is the process by which NWS meteorologists make a surface analysis or surface forecast today?

 

in particular, I have been reading a bit about the use of  the AWIPS GFE  - graphical forecast editor. 

 

I understand that the GFE produces automated text forecasts, but does it also automate production of the surface forecasts?

 

does it matter which office in NWS i am talking about?  i have noticed that surface forecasts often differ in  details, depending on which office they come from. for example, one office may show a cold front where another just shows a trough.

 

Typically, i look at surface analyses and forecasts from several different sources, depending...

 

at the Ocean Prediction Center;

 

I look at the Unified Surface Analysis, http://www.opc.ncep.noaa.gov/

and the atlantic analysis and forecasts at http://www.opc.ncep.noaa.gov/Atl_tab.shtml

 

these have a forecasters name on them

 

at the Boston Marine Weather office, there are a variety of surface analyses and forecasts, that i use quite a lot at sea.

http://weather.noaa.gov/fax/marsh.shtml

 

these also have a forecasters name on them - often the same name as the OPC forecasts, and unsurprisingly they are mostly very similar to the OPC forecasts.

 

sometimes i want surface forecasts at smaller intervals, so I use the 6 hr forecasts prepared by the HPC at 

http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_wbg.php

 

these also have a forecasters name on them, but they do differ a bit from the forecasts prepared by the marine forecasters

[isohume]

At GSP, we do hand analysis sfc charts every 3 hrs and upper air hand analysis every 12 hrs. The fcst grids in GFE are produced by hand with the help of "smart tools", which enable CWFA wide interpolations, models blends, terrain influences, etc. The WPC has software different than GFE they use to generate the national and regional wx charts, these are also produced by hand. 

[jgf]

So, if i understand correctly...,

 

The GFE is used to "blend" numerical forecast models, to integrate observations (satellite images, scatterometer winds for example), and a few other things.

 

the GFE produces a sort of "man-made" numerical forecast

 

the surface forecasts are hand drawn in the GFE based on this forecast

 

the only automated forecasts are certain text forecasts

 

It seems that the OPC has made their man-made numerical forecast available to the public in GRIB form

 

http://www.opc.ncep.noaa.gov/opc_gridded_marine.php

 

have any other forecast offices made their version of the GFE produced forecast available for download?

[isohume]

Yeah the GFE is used to hand draw, blend model output, bring in sfc obs and remote sensing, and many other applications. It is basically a gridded graphical editor for all our weather elements and hazards. Every forecaster has their own favorite smart tools/procedures and ways in which they interact with GFE. Based on your specific fcst will determine the way in which you design your fcst grids. There are countless ways to generate fcst grids in GFE.

 

The surface and upper air charts I was talking about are paper maps which we contour and shade by hand.

 

You're right the text products drop out of whatever is depicted in the grids. GFE has text formatters that look at the grids then spatially and temporially output various text products.

 

You can download any of the gridded fcsts in GRIB format at the NDFD. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/ndfd/technical.htm