Data Assimilation and Fusion for Operational NextGen NWM An Enhanced Hydrologic Forecasting Framework

Objective:

Fusing different Precipitation datasets

Abstract:

The operational forecasting systems currently used in the United States, integrate Data
Assimilation (DA) techniques with numerical weather models to improve meteorological
forecasts. The growing access to the earth and environmental remote sensing datasets has provided
a great opportunity to enhance the forecasting skill of operational forecast systems by including a
DA-hydrologic modeling framework in these systems. The NOAA-NWS Office of Water
Prediction (OWP) has started the development of the NextGen National Water Model and aims to
implement it operationally by FY 2024. The main goal of this project is to enhance the forecasting
skill of US operational forecast systems by incorporating DA techniques into the NextGen
framework. One of the main contributions of this study is to develop a novel precipitation product
that combines different precipitation datasets and generates more accurate results for hydrologic
modeling. We utilize this product within our proposed DA framework and assimilate remotely
sensed satellite data and point source gauge measurements into the hydrologic models within the
NextGen framework.