WASHINGTON - Weather and environmental forecasts made several weeks to months in advance can someday be as widely used and essential as current predictions of tomorrow's weather are, but first more research and sustained investment are needed, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The committee that conducted the study and wrote the report developed a research agenda, outlining strategies to address the scientific and capability gaps that currently limit the accuracy and usefulness of long-term weather and ocean predictions.
Extending short-term forecasts to predict Earth system conditions -- conditions in the atmosphere, ocean, or land surface -- two weeks to 12 months into the future will help decision makers, such as local officials, farmers, military officers, or water resource managers, plan ahead and save lives, protect property, and increase economic vitality. For example, naval and commercial shipping routes could be better planned to avoid hazards or take advantage of favorable conditions predicted for the weeks ahead.
"We have a bold vision that subseasonal to seasonal forecasts, which look two weeks to up to a year in advance, will be as widely used a decade from now as daily and weekly weather forecasts are today," said committee chair Raymond J. Ban, Ban and Associates, LLC. "Even if such information never matches the level of confidence associated with tomorrow's weather forecast, it could still be used by individuals, businesses, and governments to make a large array of important decisions. The path to realizing this vision and its inherent value will require focused effort on Earth system processes and predictions by both physical and social scientists. It's time to step up investment in building next-generation Earth system prediction capabilities."
The report outlines a 10-year agenda with four research strategies to make seasonal and subseasonal forecasts more accurate and relevant.
The first strategy is to better engage the community that uses forecast products, which includes resource managers, military planners, first responders, and other potential users across many sectors, the report says. Social and behavioral science research can help elucidate how current forecasts are being used and identify barriers that exist. The subseasonal to seasonal research and operational prediction community should be engaged in an ongoing dialogue with user communities in order to match what is scientifically feasible with what users find actionable, as both technical forecasting capabilities and user needs continually evolve.
The second strategy is to focus on increasing the skill and accuracy of subseasonal to seasonal forecasts, the report says. This will require improvements in all parts of the forecast systems, including expanding observations, improving data assimilation methods, reducing model errors, and improving methods for quantifying uncertainties and verifying forecasts outcomes.
The committee's third research strategy is to focus on improving the forecasts of extreme and disruptive events, such as winter storms, excessive rainfall events, and intense heat waves, and the consequences of unanticipated events caused by outside forces such as volcanoes, meteor impacts, and oil spills. Improved prediction of extreme and disruptive events and of the consequences of unanticipated forcing events would give communities more time to plan ahead and mitigate.
The development of advanced Earth system model components beyond the lower atmosphere, which has been the traditional focus of numerical weather prediction, also requires more attention, the committee noted. The final research strategy calls for developing more sophisticated models of the ocean, land surface, and cryosphere and other Earth system components and expanding predictions to include more variables relevant to subseasonal and seasonal decision making, such as air quality and sea-ice characteristics, in forecast models.
The report notes these research strategies will all require advances in the U.S. computational infrastructure to support subseasonal to seasonal forecasting and a national plan and investment strategy for the future. The sheer volume of observational data, data assimilation steps, and model output involved in this forecasting challenges the limits of current cyber-infrastructure. This growing subseasonal to seasonal field also needs a workforce able to cross traditional disciplinary boundaries within the Earth sciences, between computing and physical science fields, and to bridge the divide between researchers and decision makers.
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The study was sponsored by the Office of Naval Research, NASA, and the Heising-Simons Foundation. The Academies are private, nonprofit institutions that provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions related to science, technology, and medicine. They operate under an 1863 congressional charter to the National Academy of Sciences, signed by President Lincoln. For more information, visit http://national-academies.org. A roster follows.
The report will be released with a public briefing and webcast at 11 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, March 29; it will also be discussed at a webinar to be held on Wednesday, May 4.
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Pre-publication copies of Next Generation Earth System Prediction: Strategies for Subseasonal to Seasonal Forecasts are available from the National Academies Press on the Internet at http://www.nap.edu or by calling 202-334-3313 or 1-800-624-6242. Reporters may obtain a copy from the Office of News and Public Information (contacts listed above).
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES OF SCIENCES, ENGINEERING, AND MEDICINE
Division on Earth and Life Studies
Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate
Committee on Developing a U.S. Research Agenda to Advance Subseasonal to Seasonal Forecasting
Raymond J. Ban (chair)
President
Ban and Associates, LLC
Marietta, Ga.
Cecilia Bitz
Professor
Department of Atmospheric Sciences
University of Washington
Seattle
Andy Brown
Director of Science
United Kingdom Meteorological Office
Exeter, Devon
Eric Chassignet
Professor and Director
Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies
Florida State University
Tallahassee
John A. Dutton
President
Prescient Weather, Ltd.
State College, Pa.
Robert Hallberg
Oceanographer and Oceans and Ice-sheet Processes and Climate Group Head
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory
Princeton University, Forrestal Campus
Princeton, N.J.
Anke Kamrath
Director of Operations and Services
Computational and Information Systems Laboratory
National Center for Atmospheric Research
Boulder, Colo.
Daryl T. Kleist
Assistant Professor
Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science
University of Maryland
College Park
Pierre F.J. Lermusiaux
Associate Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering and Ocean Science and Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge
Hai Lin
Senior Research Scientist
Environment and Climate Change Canada
Dorval, Quebec
Laura Myers
Deputy Director and Senior Research Social Scientist
Department of Engineering
University of Alabama
Tuscaloosa
Julie Pullen
Associate Professor
Ocean Engineering
Stevens Institute of Technology
Hoboken, N.J.
Scott Sandgathe
Senior Principal Meteorologist
Applied Physics Laboratory
University of Washington
Seattle
Mark Shafer
Associate State Climatologist
Oklahoma Climatological Survey
University of Oklahoma
Norman
Duane Waliser
Chief Scientist
Earth Science and Technology Directorate
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena
Chidong Zhang
Professor
Department of Meteorology and Physical Oceanography
University of Miami
Miami
STAFF
Edward Dunlea
Study Director