Hobbies And Interests
MM5
The fifth generation mesoscale model, or MM5 for weather forecasting, was originally developed by researchers at Penn State, and later at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. MM5 is intended to predict or simulate weather patterns over a limited area, and is, therefore, most useful for regional weather forecasting. MM5 is a terrain-following modeling system, and must begin with the present conditions in the region.
WRF
WRF, or Weather Research and Forecasting Model, is the latest generation weather prediction system. WRF can be used for both atmospheric research and operational forecasting. WRF has been developed by several organizations working in collaboration: the Federal Aviation Administration or FAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAA, the Forecast Systems Laboratory or FSL, the University of Oklahoma, the National Center for Atmospheric Research or NCAR, the Naval Research Laboratory, the Air Force Weather Agency or AFWA, and the National Centers for Environmental Prediction or NCEP. WRF is also useful in a limited area and is a terrain-following model.
Code Differences
The computer code of WRF is newer and more flexible than that used by MM5. New modules can easily be added to the WRF code whereas, in the MM5, additions are much more difficult to make. However, because the WRF code is new, bugs continue to show up that were not apparent in the initial testing phase. WRF code requires less smoothing and filtering than does MM5 code. The result is better overall resolution in the WRF system.
Other Differences
According to S. Pattanayak and U.C. Mohanty's study for the Centre for Atmospheric Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology, WRF provides better predictions of weather overall when compared to MM5. When compared to actual observations, WRF provides more realistic simulations of current weather patterns than MM5 does. This difference in the level of accuracy explains why MM5 models are being replaced almost universally with WRF systems.