The Rapid Refresh (RR or RAP) is a

numerical weather prediction Numerical weather prediction (NWP) uses mathematical models of the atmosphere and oceans to weather forecasting, predict the weather based on current weather conditions. Though first attempted in the 1920s, it was not until the advent of comput ...

(NWP) model. The model is designed to provide short-range hourly

weather forecasts Weather is the state of the atmosphere, describing for example the degree to which it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloud cover, cloudy. On Earth, most weather phenomena occur in the lowest layer of the planet's atmo ...

for North America. The Rapid Refresh was officially made operational on 1 May 2012, replacing the

Rapid Update Cycle The Rapid Update Cycle (RUC) was an American atmospheric prediction system that consisted primarily of a numerical forecast model and an analysis system to initialize the model. The first operational implementation was created in 1994, with 60 ...

(RUC). The model also serves as the boundary conditions for the higher-resolution High Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) model, that uses a grid spacing on a domain covering the continental United States. The Rapid Refresh is run at the

NOAA The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, charting the seas, conducting deep-sea exploratio ...

National Centers for Environmental Prediction The United States National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) delivers national and global weather, water, climate, and space weather guidance, forecasts, warnings, and analyses to government agencies and private users. The centers f ...

(NCEP). It is based on the framework of the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF); the

Global Forecast System The Global Forecast System (GFS) is a global numerical weather prediction system containing a global computer model and variational analysis run by the United States' National Weather Service (NWS). Operation The mathematical model is ...

(GFS) provides the boundary parameters. The grid points are spaced every , with 50 vertical intervals extending up to the 10-hectopascal (10 mb) level of the atmosphere. The model runs once each hour, with new information being integrated every 15 minutes. Forecasts are given hourly out to 18 hours and 48 hours every 6th run. An experimental version of the Rapid Refresh runs at the

Earth System Research Laboratories The Earth System Research Laboratories (ESRL) is an alliance of four NOAA scientific labs, all located in the David Skaggs Research Center on the Department of Commerce campus in Boulder, Colorado. Organized under NOAA's Office of Oceanic and At ...

(ESRL), a NOAA unit that develops models in the research stage prior to operational implementation at NCEP.

References

External links

Rapid Refresh website

High Resolution Rapid Refresh website
{{Atmospheric, Oceanographic and Climate Models National Weather Service numerical models

See also

References

External links