CSSI Software Element: Cloud WRF for the Atmospheric Research and Education Communities
The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model is the world’s most popular numerical weather prediction model and is supported by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) to a community of users across universities, research labs, and operational centers. This effort is exploiting the emerging technology of cloud computing for the critical WRF support effort and for the benefit of the worldwide user community. The work has established an officially-supported version of WRF in the cloud that extends system accessibility, improves model support and training, and facilitates model development. The components include: cloud-configured WRF system code; cloud WRF tutorial materials; and a cloud-based testing capability for code contributions. To date, the cloud WRF materials have been used for tutorials on the modeling system, for student instruction at universities, and for new system version releases.