T. Warner, R. Peterson, R. Treadon
Nov 1, 1997
Citations
17
Influential Citations
451
Citations
Quality indicators
Journal
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
Abstract
Limited-area models (LAMs) are presently used for a wide variety of research and operational forecasting applications, and such use will likely expand greatly as the rapid increase in the performance/price ratio of computers and workstations makes LAMs more accessible to novice users. The robustness of these well-tested and documented models will make it tempting for many to consider them as turn-key systems that can be used without any experience or formal training in numerical weather prediction. This paper is intended as a tutorial and caution for such prospective model users, with the specific purpose of illustrating that, in spite of advanced physical-process parameterizations and high resolutions permitted by faster computers, and modern mesoscale data for initial conditions, there is still a basic limitation to predictability with a LAM—lateral boundary conditions (LBC). Illustrations are provided of previous work that show the serious negative effects of LBCs, and guidelines are provided for helpi...