HMT-West Transition Project Report Released
February 1, 2013
A report is now available that highlights the major research findings that have come out of the decade long HMT-West and have been transitioned in some manner into operational use by forecasters and decision makers.
The major goal of HMT-West has been aimed at accelerating the research, development, and infusion of new observing system technologies, models, and scientific results from the research community into daily forecasting operations of the National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs), River Forecast Centers (RFCs), and the National Centers for Environmental Prediction's (NCEP) Hydrometeorological Prediction Center (HPC). In addition other agencies such as the US Geological Survey (USGS), US Army Corp of Engineers (USACE), the NWS National Water Center (NWC), and state water management agencies (e.g., the California Department of Water Resources) can and will benefit as these data and information will provide improved decision support to meet their missions.
The report is divided into two major sections. The first highlights those research findings that have been transitioned. In the context of this report transition can include improved forecaster knowledge base, improved/enhanced data flow to operations, decision support tools, web based information and emergency response activities. These cover issues like one-time deployment of Atmospheric River Observatories to support NWS field offices during critical situations like the Howard Hansen Dam structure failure or potential massive debris flows after major wildfires. The second major section covers planned transition projects that were vetted through NWS operations such as WFO and RFC forecasters.
The report was authored by David Reynolds, the HMT Transition Program Leader at NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory and Timothy Schneider, the NWS liason to HMT from the National Water Center.
