Principles of Numerical Weather Prediction, Page 1 of 11

Modern weather prediction relies on computer simulations of the atmosphere from high-speed computers. To a large extent, the human forecaster's job is to decide which computer forecast is likely to be most accurate and to correct it in those places where it is likely to be wrong. Starting from scratch, today's computer models are much more accurate than human forecasters working without computers. To make a skillful forecast nowadays (that is, to prove that humans and computers combined is better than just computers), forecasters must understand the strengths and limitations of the computer models and recognize when they will have problems.

To obtain a basic understanding of how a numerical model works.
To understand the importance of initial conditions in a numerical weather forecast
To understand the importance of model resolution in a numerical weather forecast.

There is no standard table of contents for this module, because there are actually two parallel modules. You may read about "Melissa and the Weather Computer", or you may read about "Frank and the Weather Computer". Make your selection below.


For the Hero Frank			For the Heroine Melissa

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Questions or Comments

Technical: E-mail John Fulton < jdfult@nimbus.met.tamu.edu >
Scientific: E-mail Dr. John Nielsen-Gammon. < nielsen@ariel.met.tamu.edu >