The time has come! Six months of planning and the 2024 Convective Applications Experiment begins at NOAA's Hazardous Weather Testbed in Norman, Oklahoma. Sixteen NWS forecasters will get to demonstrate five experimental products in live and archived severe weather scenarios to improve NWS severe convective warnings, impact-based decisions support services (IDSS), and enhance the transition of new technologies into operations. The schedule is as follows:
- Week 1: 13-17 May, In-Person
- Week 2: 20-24 May, In-Person
- Week 3: 3-7 June, Virtual
Five products headline the testbed this year, with a mix of applications that covers mesoanalysis, convective initiation, warning issuance, IDSS support, machine learning, and even mesoscale modeling. The products are as follows:
- GLM Background and Data Quality Product
- GREMLIN (GOES Radar Estimation via Machine Learning to Inform NWP)
- OCTANE (Speed, Direction, Cloud-Top Cooling and Divergence)
- Polar Hyperspectral Soundings with Microwave and ABI data (PHS) Model
- NOAA/CIMSS ProbSevere LightningCast
Each product will have its own tag, so you can follow along with each product (GLM-DQP, GREMLIN, OCTANE, PHS, and LightningCast) or the entire experiment at HWT2024!
Lastly WDTD is hosting R2O O2R Tales (ROOTs) webinars, formerly known as Tales from the Testbed, featuring testbed forecasters on May 17th and 24th at 11am CDT. Those interested may register here (Note: You must submit the form multiple times to register for multiple webinars).
Thank you all, and happy forecasting!
-Kevin Thiel, SPC/HWT Satellite Liaison