How can NWP models be categorized?
Many models, or more specifically, the forecast products derived from them, don’t fit into a neat scheme. Increasingly, the same models are being used to output many different products. For just two examples, the UKMET Unified Model is used to output predictions from global scale down to just the UK, and NOAA’s Global Forecast System also outputs predictions for different scales and time-frames. But it still can be useful to categorize forecast models by their three main characterics: 1. Forecast area, or the scale of the grid: global, but usually one hemisphere, • regional, North America or Europe, for example, • or relocatable; 2. Resolution, or the size of the grid, from over a hundred kilometers on a side down to just a few kilometers. 3.
