Collaboration with NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL)
Global Systems Division
CIRA researchers have established influential roles in every branch and virtually every project in GSD.
Project management, technical leadership and scientific research for the High Impact Weather Prediction Project (HIWPP), part of the Hurricane Sandy Supplemental funding. Research in OSSE’s, high performance computing, information systems, global models, and model verification are included in this program.
Technical and scientific leadership to develop global, regional and local scale forecast models such as the Flow Following Finite Icosahedral Model (FIM), the High Resolution Rapid Refresh Model (HRRR) and the Local Analysis and Prediction System (LAPS) are primary focus areas for CIRA scientists in ESRL.
Forecast Impact and Quality Assessment Section (FIQAS) program management (M.Petty), engineering and research support are CIRA’s contributions to quality assessment of NWS and FAA turbulence, precipitation and turbulence aviation weather forecasts products. As part of the NWS NextGen Aviation Weather Program, CIRA researchers at ESRL continue their research into the technology and science of populating a four-dimensional airspace with atmospheric data, extraction methodologies, distribution formats, and input mechanisms to be used by aviation decision support systems. Technical and program leadership by CIRA researchers resulted in the assessment of real-time aviation weather forecast products and decision support tools that utilize verification information in a real-time, web-based tool (INSITE).
Key research and development positions are held by CIRA researchers in programs that focus on the delivery and visualization of NOAA’s data to research, operational and public users. Major projects include the NOAA Earth Information System (NEIS), the NWS AWIPS II Hazard Services, FxCAVE virtual client, FX-Net systems, the Meteorological Assimilation and Data Ingest System (MADIS), and the NOAA Integrated Dissemination Program (IDP) and Next Gen IT Web Services Project (NGITWS).
CIRA researchers are also leaders in the development of high performance computing software and firmware (especially related to GPU processing).
CIRA staff lead and contribute to the development of technology and scientific content for NOAA’s premier education and outreach program, Science on a Sphere (SOS®).
CIRA research extends into six of twelve NOAA testbeds and proving grounds programs:
Aviation Weather Testbed (AWT)
Development Testbed Center (DTC), Ensembles
Hazardous Weather Testbed (HWT)
Hydrometeorology Testbed (HMT)
Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation (JCSDA)