Lucas Harris¹, Linjiong Zhou^1,2, Shian-Jiann Lin¹, Jan-Huey Chen^1,3, Xi Chen^1,2, Kun Gao^1,2, Matthew Morin^1,3, Shannon Rees^1,3, Yongqiang Sun^1,2, Mingjing Tong^1,4, Baoqiang Xiang^1,3, Morris Bender^1,2, Rusty Benson¹, Kai-Yuan Cheng^1,2, Spencer Clark^1,5, Oliver Elbert^1,5, Andrew Hazelton^1,2*, J. Jacob Huff^1,3, Alex Kaltenbaugh^1,3, Zhi Liang¹, Timothy Marchok¹, Hyeyum Hailey Shin^1,3, and William Stern¹

¹NOAA/Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey.

²Cooperative Institute for Modeling the Earth System, Program in Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey.

³University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado.

⁴SAIC, Princeton, New Jersey.

⁵Vulcan, Inc., Seattle, Washington.

Corresponding author: Lucas Harris (lucas.harris@noaa.gov)

*Current affiliation: NOAA/Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, Miami, Florida.

Key Points:

A unified “one code, one executable, one workflow” global prediction modeling system is presented.
SHiELD’s multiple configurations show prediction skill and simulation fidelity matching or exceeding those of existing US models.
The FV3 Dynamical Core provides a powerful foundation for unified prediction modeling.

Abstract

We present the System for High-resolution prediction on Earth-to-Local Domains (SHiELD), an atmosphere model coupling the nonhydrostatic FV3 Dynamical Core to a physics suite originally taken from the Global Forecast System. SHiELD is designed to demonstrate new capabilities within its components, explore new model applications, and to answer scientific questions through these new functionalities. A variety of configurations are presented, including short-to-medium-range and subseasonal-to-seasonal (S2S) prediction, global-to-regional convective-scale hurricane and contiguous US precipitation forecasts, and global cloud-resolving modeling. Advances within SHiELD can be seamlessly transitioned into other Unified Forecast System (UFS) or FV3-based models, including operational implementations of the UFS.

Continued development of SHiELD has shown improvement upon existing models. The flagship 13-km SHiELD demonstrates steadily improved large-scale prediction skill and precipitation prediction skill. SHiELD and the coarser-resolution S-SHiELD demonstrate a superior diurnal cycle compared to existing climate models; the latter also demonstrates 28 days of useful prediction skill for the Madden-Julian Oscillation. The global-to-regional nested configurations T-SHiELD (tropical Atlantic) and C-SHiELD (contiguous United States) shows significant improvement in hurricane structure from a new tracer advection scheme and promise for medium-range prediction of convective storms, respectively.