Convective Scale Predictability and Development of Severe Weather Model Diagnostics, Verification, and Visualization Strategies for High-Resolution Ensemble Forecast Systems
National Severe Storms Laboratory
The use of convection-permitting models (CPMs) represents a fundamental change in how forecasters use numerical models—rather than inferring potential societal hazards from forecast environments predicted by relatively coarse convection-parameterizing models—CPMs provide direct information on specific fine-scale weather phenomena that produce hazardous weather (e.g., flash flood producing rainfall systems, tornadic thunderstorms, and squall lines with damaging wind gusts). However, effective use of CPMs requires new and innovative model diagnostics, verification, and visualization strategies. Furthermore, how to best configure CPM-based ensemble systems for operational forecasting is an open question and requires experiments examining the impact of different data assimilation methods, initial and lateral boundary conditions perturbations, and model errors. For this opportunity, a successful candidate would address these open research areas utilizing datasets generated as part of annual NOAA/Hazardous Weather Testbed (HWT) Spring Forecasting Experiments, NSSL's Warn-on-Forecast project, or their own carefully designed experiments. The candidate would have the opportunity to participate in or lead activities in the HWT experiments as part of their research.
$24,000 Supplement for Doctorates in Electrical Engineering
Experience Supplement: Postdoctoral and Senior Associates will receive an appropriately higher stipend based on the number of years of experience past their PhD.