advanced

Research into the forecasting and detecting of high-impact weather events has deep roots and is the original seed from which many projects in RAL have been developed over the years. Development of improved NWP methods and applications for data assimilation, microphysics, land-atmosphere and ensemble approaches are used in systems and products across RAL. To better forecast and detect high-impact weather events, RAL technology is aimed at improving atmospheric measurements of key variables, new instruments, remote sensing (radar, satellite, profilers), algorithms that enhance capability (turbulence, wind profilers, microphysical retrieval from radars) and integrating models and observations. More recently, the goal of solving the problem of a short-term (0-24 hr) forecast has been given special emphasis and a new cross-divisional program (STEP) has been formed to work on this challenge.

After years of developing, testing and perfecting the science and technology for forecasting and detecting high-impact weather events, the benefits from this research are integrated throughout many projects and areas of research: turbulence, Ceiling and Visibility, Convective Weather, Olympics (Sydney, SLC, Athens, and Beijing), In-flight Icing, Juneau, Hong Kong (WTWS) and Taiwan (AOAWS).