Rapid Refresh (RAP)

Composite reflectivity

Surface Temperature

850 mb Relative Humidity

850 mb Wind

250 mb Wind

The Rapid Refresh is the continental-scale NOAA hourly-updated assimilation/modeling system operational at NCEP. RAP covers North America and is comprised primarily of a numerical forecast model and an analysis/assimilation system to initialize that model. RAP is complemented by the higher-resolution 3km High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) model, which is also updated hourly and covering a smaller geographic domain.

RAPv1 - implemented 1 May 2012 at NCEP (replacing the Rapid Update Cycle - RUC )
RAPv2 - implemented 25 Feb 2014 at NCEP
RAPv3 - implemented 23 Aug 2016 at NCEP (RAPv3/HRRRv2 info - Sep 2016)
NWS Technical Information Notice on RAPv3/HRRRv2

NCEP implementations of 3km HRRR (v1)

version 1 - 30 Sept 2014

version 2 - 23 Aug 2016

Experimental versions of HRRR/RAP implemented at ESRL

Experimental HRRRv3/RAPv4 starting at ESRL in Sept 2016
Experimental HRRRv2/RAPv3 implemented at ESRL 1 Jan 2015.
Complete RAP (v1-v3) description in Benjamin et al. 2016, A North American Hourly Assimilation and Model Forecast Cycle: The Rapid Refresh. Mon. Wea. Rev., 144, 1669-1694.

Recent RAP/HRRR presentations

HRRR/RAP July 2016 presentation to NWS

High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR - 3km)

HRRR home page / info

Real-time products from 3km HRRR

Access to real-time and archive RAP grids

NCEP ftp site for real-time RAP data in GRIB2 format
NCEP RAP product inventory
NWS/COMET archive of RAP hybrid (native) grids
NASA ARM archive for RUC/RAP data . Click under "Data User Notes" on switch from RUC to RAP data on 5-1-2012. Data must be requested from the DOE/ARM facility.

Earth Modeling Branch (EMB)

Rapid Refresh (RAP)