Research Projects



1. Pacific Northwest Analysis of Record (AOR) Project - This project involves creating a Pacific Northwest analysis of record down to 12-km resolution. Various configurations of the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF), which is currently being run at the U. of Washington, are being tested to provide the best mesoscale analysis. Future testing will include a four-dimensional variational approach, in which the model supplies the covariance information intrinsically instread of the EnKF sampling procedure. The plots currently displayed on this page show the EnKF mean analyses and forecasts for both a 36-km and 12-km Pacific Northwest domain (12-km domain is being tested so this portion of the page may be under construction).

Go to Analysis of Record Homepage



2. Development of Adaptive Data Assimilation Techniques - This work focuses on the development of effective oberservation targeting methods using both ensemble and adjoint techniques. The major goal is to improve the prediction of high-impact weather events such as windstorms, snowstorms, and flooding. Examining observation impact is also part of this project, as it will be important in the future to keep or exclude large amounts of observations for optimal real-time data assimilation. Currently, real-time observation targeting locations are being calculated in conjunction with the UW real-time EnKF, and plots of targeting locations can be found on the AOR homepage as described above.

Go to Adaptive Data Assimilation Homepage





Various examples of unmanned, adaptive observing platforms. From left,
aerosonde, dropsonde, and rocketsonde.