Researchers participate in mini-project with NWS in Alaska as part of new NOAA Arctic Testbed

PSL researchers Janet Intrieri and Amy Solomon worked alongside National Weather Service (NWS) Alaska Region sea ice analysts in Anchorage for a week in early October. The primary objective of this PSL-inspired Arctic Testbed "mini-project" was to understand how a newly, PSL-developed coupled atmosphere-ice-ocean model performed against observations, during the freeze-up season, and how it could be improved through interactions with the Sea Ice Program staff. This project provided the opportunity for PSL researchers to build working relationships with NWS staff, understand what the NWS analysts use for guidance to develop their 5-day forecasts, observe the tools they routinely use and the observations which are incorporated into their products, and understand what additional information they need to improve their forecasts. Future work will include analysis and improvement of the model through comparison with observations from the Sea State Arctic research cruise, comparison with NWS products, and potentially another testbed continuation project during freeze-up or melt-back next year.

The recently formed NOAA Arctic Testbed facilitates testing and evaluation of new research, guidance, forecast techniques, products, and services to improve forecast process and decision support activities in Alaska and the adjacent Arctic.

Posted: October 26, 2015