What steps have to be run to actually create a weather forecast?
Many different steps are required to run a full weather forecast. The web program has to collect different inputs from the user, while many more advanced input parameters are held constant for every forecast. A terrain model of the forecast domain is created from static data. A surface model, showing what the surface is (i.e. soil or water), is also created from static data. Depending on the area of the forecast, multiple NEXRAD radar stations are considered for data added to the forecast. Current satellite data is gathered from the infrared sensors showing the current precipitation and reflectivity levels. All of these initial inputs are run through EXT2ARPS to create the boundary conditions surrounding the actual forecast domain and through ADAS to create an initial condition for the forecast itself. ARPS then runs the forecast, and a separate plotting program creates forecast images that are human-readable.
