NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HEADQUARTERS WASHINGTON DC 425 PM EST MON MAR 10 2003 TO: FAMILY OF SERVICES (FOS) SUBSCRIBERS...NOAA WEATHER SERVICES (NWWS) FROM: JAMES E. LEE SUBJECT: PROPOSED CHANGES TO HPC'S NORTH AMERICAN SURFACE ANALYSIS THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IS PROPOSING MODIFICATIONS TO THE NORTH AMERICAN SURFACE ANALYSIS ...PREPARED BY THE NATIONAL CENTERS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PREDICTION'S (NCEP) HYDROMETEOROLOGICAL PREDICTION CENTER (HPC) ...AND LISTED IN TABLE 1. AS PART OF A SERIES OF CHANGES TO THE NCEP SURFACE ANALYSIS SUITE ...THE AREA OF COVERAGE OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SURFACE ANALYSIS WILL BE REDUCED AND THE CHARTS WILL BE ISSUED EARLIER ...EFFECTIVE JUNE 3 2003 AT 1500 UNIVERSAL COORDINATED TIME (UTC).
BY REDUCING THE AREA OF COVERAGE OVER THE EASTERN PACIFIC AND WESTERN ATLANTIC OCEANS...THE HPC WILL BE ABLE TO RELEASE THE ANALYSIS APPROXIMATELY 30 MINUTES EARLIER...ABOUT 1 HOUR AFTER OBSERVATION TIME. THOSE NEEDING AN ANALYSIS OVER THE OCEANS CAN USE THE ANALYSES PRODUCED BY THE OCEAN PREDICTION CENTER (OPC) AND THE NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER (NHC)...AND LISTED IN TABLE 2. NOTE...THERE WILL BE NO CHANGES TO THE AREA OF COVERAGE OR THE RELEASE TIMES OF THE SURFACE ANALYSES ISSUED BY THE OPC AND THE NHC.
THE HPC ANALYSIS CHANGES ARE PART OF NCEP'S PLAN TO IMPLEMENT A SEAMLESS LARGE SCALE SURFACE ANALYSIS COVERING THE COMBINED NALYSIS AREAS OF THE OPC...NHC...AND HPC. CURRENT PLANS CALL FOR THIS LARGE SCALE NCEP ANALYSIS TO COVER THE AREA FROM ROUGHLY EAST ASIA ACROSS THE PACIFIC OCEAN AND THE CONUS TO THE WEST COAST OF EUROPE AND AFRICA. THE AREA WOULD EXTEND FROM APPROXIMATELY 60N TO 20S LATITUDE. IT IS EXPECTED THE LARGE SCALE NCEP ANALYSIS WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE APPROXIMATELY THREE AND ONE HALF HOURS AFTER OBSERVATION TIME EVERY SIX HOURS. MORE DETAILS ON NCEP'S LARGE SCALE SURFACE ANALYSIS...INCLUDING IMPLEMENTATION DATE...WILL BE ANNOUNCED IN A FUTURE SERVICE CHANGE NOTICE. EXAMPLES OF THE NEW HPC NORTH AMERICAN SURFACE ANALYSIS AND FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE NCEP SURFACE ANALYSIS PROGRAM ARE ON THE INTERNET AT
www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/html/new_noam.shtml PLEASE REVIEW THE INFORMATION PROVIDED ON THE INTERNET AT THE URL ABOVE. IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS ABOUT HPC'S NORTH AMERICAN SURFACE ANALYSIS CHANGE...CONTACT THE FOLLOWING PERSONS BY MAY 9 2003. KEVIN MCCARTHY...DEPUTY DIRECTOR THIS NOTICE AND OTHER SERVICE CHANGE NOTICES ARE ON THE INTERNET AT |