Levels of backup for Rapid Update Cycle products

• Operational -- NCEP/NWS/NOAA (Camp Springs, MD, Gaithersburg, MD).
  NCEP runs and supports all NWS operational weather prediction models, including the RUC. Fully supported with 24/7 staff.
  Current status of the NCEP Production Suite, including RUC
  Current forecast products from operational RUC

• Primary backup -- NOAA/NCEP backup facility (Fairmont, WV).
  

• Secondary emergency backup -- NOAA ESRL/GSD (Boulder, CO).
  The "backup RUC13" cycle is the most reliable version of the RUC run at GSD. The backup RUC13 uses dedicated processors and is monitored by NOAA/ESRL's Information and Technology Services (ITS). The GSD backup RUC uses an independent source of observations from the operational NCEP RUC. Until mid-2006, grids from the GSD backup RUC were transferred hourly to NWS Telecommunications Gateway but only used in event of an outage at NCEP. In general, the backup RUC uses similar analysis and model code compared to that used at NCEP.
  Current forecast products from the GSD backup RUC

  Further information on the NCEP backup procedures, type of products available, and their approximately delivery times may be found at: http://nomad5.ncep.noaa.gov/DOC/announce.txt

• Human monitoring
  -- NCEP Computing Operations (NCO) supports a 24/7 position called the Senior Duty Meteorologist (SDM). This person watches the job flow of all NCEP operational models, and immediately uses correction or investigation procedures in case of any problem. The SDM also manages some monitoring of input observational data to the NCEP models.
  NCEP/NCO Production Suite Status including RUC
  
  NCEP/NCO/SDM status messages
  

  A wide variety of users in the NWS and other government agencies and the private sector access NCEP data on an hourly basis. The NWS users (and some others) are able to directly contact the Senior Duty Meteorologist at NCEP in the event of any model problem.

• Overlapping RUC runs
  -- Since the RUC runs hourly out to at least 3h projections (and 12h projections every third hour) with hourly output fields, there are forecasts from previous hourly cycles that can be used to provide information in the event of an outage. This allows users to survive a few hours of outages, even if the operational RUC at NCEP and backup at FSL both failed to provide products for such a period. [This has not occurred since the RUC began to run an hourly cycle in 1998.]