National Mosaic and Multi-Sensor QPE (NMQ) System: Description, Results, and Future Plans

TLDR

The National Mosaic and Multi‑sensor QPE (NMQ) system was developed through a joint effort by NOAA, FAA, and the Salt River Project, and later expanded with support from NWS offices and Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau. This paper aims to develop a high‑resolution multisensor QPE platform and a seamless national 3‑D radar grid for flood warnings, water resource management, severe weather detection, and aviation products, and to present initial evaluation results and future development plans. NMQ assimilates radar, gauge, satellite, and expert‑generated QPE products, evaluates experimental outputs against operational products and gauge observations in real time, and operates fully automatically. Over ten years, NMQ has produced real‑time 1‑km horizontal, 2.5‑min update 3‑D reflectivity mosaics and QPE products for the contiguous U.S., serving government, academia, and industry, and has enabled systematic evaluation and rapid science‑to‑operation advances.

Abstract

The National Mosaic and Multi-sensor QPE (Quantitative Precipitation Estimation), or “NMQ”, system was initially developed from a joint initiative between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Severe Storms Laboratory, the Federal Aviation Administration's Aviation Weather Research Program, and the Salt River Project. Further development has continued with additional support from the National Weather Service (NWS) Office of Hydrologic Development, the NWS Office of Climate, Water, and Weather Services, and the Central Weather Bureau of Taiwan. The objectives of NMQ research and development (R&D) are 1) to develop a hydrometeorological platform for assimilating different observational networks toward creating high spatial and temporal resolution multisensor QPEs for f lood warnings and water resource management and 2) to develop a seamless high-resolution national 3D grid of radar reflectivity for severe weather detection, data assimilation, numerical weather prediction model verification, and aviation product development. Through about ten years of R&D, a real-time NMQ system has been implemented (http://nmq.ou.edu). Since June 2006, the system has been generating high-resolution 3D reflectivity mosaic grids (31 vertical levels) and a suite of severe weather and QPE products in real-time for the conterminous United States at a 1-km horizontal resolution and 2.5 minute update cycle. The experimental products are provided in real-time to end users ranging from government agencies, universities, research institutes, and the private sector and have been utilized in various meteorological, aviation, and hydrological applications. Further, a number of operational QPE products generated from different sensors (radar, gauge, satellite) and by human experts are ingested in the NMQ system and the experimental products are evaluated against the operational products as well as independent gauge observations in real time. The NMQ is a fully automated system. It facilitates systematic evaluations and advances of hydrometeorological sciences and technologies in a real-time environment and serves as a test bed for rapid science-to-operation infusions. This paper describes scientific components of the NMQ system and presents initial evaluation results and future development plans of the system.