11-micron brightness temperatures at the cloud top

DBCRAS
The CIMSS Regional Assimilation System (CRAS) numerical weather prediction model was developed by the researchers of the Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) of the University of Wisconsin-Madison (Leslie et al., 1985; Raymond et al., 1995; Raymond et al., 1998; for more information please see http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/cras/index.html). The DBCRAS forecast model is the Direct Broadcast version of CRAS, which assimilates the MODIS total precipitable water vapor parameter found within the mod07 HDF product (atmospheric profiles) and the Cloud Top Pressure and Cloud Effective Emissivity parameters from the mod06 HDF files (Cloud Product) to adjust the depiction of atmospheric moisture and clouds in the initial model conditions taken from the US NOAA National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Global Forecast System (GFS) model (Aune et al., 2008, 2009).

The forecast runs on a 48 km × 48 km horizontal resolution grid (covering ca. 10,000 km × 6,500 km centered around Hungary), with 38 vertical levels, creating outputs for 72 hours starting at every 00 and 12 UTC, using 3 hours time steps. The initial conditions are determined by a 12 hours long spin-up forecast, which utilizes the available MODIS data. The outputs of the model are stored in grib2 format. The automatic visualization is performed by McIDAS-X, ImageMagick and GrADS software.

NDBCRAS
The nested version of DBCRAS runs on a 16 km × 16 km horizontal resolution grid, and creates outputs for 48 hours, for the same meteorological parameters like DBCRAS does.

The gridpoints of DBCRAS and NDBCRAS located in the region of Hungary can be seen here
(blue: DBCRAS, green: NDBCRAS).

References
- Aune, B., Strabala, K.I., Lindstrom, S., Huang, A., 2008. The Direct Broadcast Version of the CIMSS Regional Assimilation System for Global Users. International EOS/NPP Direct Readout Meeting 2008, March 31 - April 4, 2008, Bangkok, Thailand.(http://dbmeeting.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/files2008/DBCRAS_DB2008.ppt)
- Aune, R.M., Strabala, K.I., Lindstrom, S.S. 2009. A mesoscale prediction system for high latitudes that assimilates Direct Broadcast MODIS. 10th Conference on Polar Meteorology and Oceanography (AMS). 2009. May 18-21, Wisconsin, USA. (http://ams.confex.com/ams/10POLAR/techprogram/paper_152870.htm)
- Leslie, L.M., Logan, L.W., Gauntlett, D.J., Kelly, G.A., McGreggor, J.L., Manton, M.J., 1985. A high resolution primitive equation NWP model for operations and research. Aust. Meteo. Mag., 33, 11-35.
- Raymond, W.H., Olsen, W.S., Callan, G., 1995. Diabatic forcing and initialization with assimilation of cloud and rainwater in a forecast model. Mon. Wea. Rev., 123, 366-382.
- Raymond, W.H., Aune, R.M., 1998. Improved precipitation forecasts using parameterized feedbacks in a hydrostatic forecast model. Mon. Wea. Rev., 126, 693-710.