The Data Assimilation Research Testbed: A Community Facility

• DOI: 10.1175/2009bams2618.1
• Publication Date: 2009-05-15T15:19:34Z
• Authors: Jeffrey Anderson; Tim Hoar; Kevin Raeder; Hui Liu; Nancy Collins; Ryan Torn; Avelino Avellano
• Keywords: Dart; Testbed

The Data Assimilation Research Testbed (DART) is an open-source community facility for data assimilation education, research, and development. DART's ensemble algorithms, careful software engineering, diagnostic tools allow atmospheric scientists, oceanographers, hydrologists, chemists, other geophysicists to build state-of-the-art systems with unprecedented ease. For global numerical weather prediction, DART produces ensemble-mean analyses comparable from major centers while also providing initial conditions predictions. In addition, supports more novel applications like parameter estimation, sensitivity analysis, observing system design, smoothing. Implementing basic large models requires only a few person-weeks; comprehensive have been built in months. Incorporating new observation types straightforward, requiring forward operator mapping between model's state observation's expected value. Forward operators standard, situ observations types, GPS radio occultation soundings, are available. algorithms scale well on variety of parallel architectures, allowing problems be studied. includes many low-order tutorial appropriate undergraduate graduate instruction.