Technology
Climatological Four Dimensional Data Assimilation (C-FDDA)
A new Climatological Four Dimensional Data Assimilation (C-FDDA) System has been developed at RAL to facilitate climate downscaling using the MM5 or WRF models. CFDDA was used to generate a climatography for a region of interest; typical boundary layer conditions were used to define likely directions and speeds of hazardous-material transport for different seasons and times of day. C-FDDA is also being used to create a global mosaic of moderate resolution (~40 km) climatographies for the 1979-2005 period. This database will be used by state, and local emergency managers for predicting the effects of accidental or intentional releases of hazardous material. And finally, C-FDDA is being used to study the hydro-climatology of the eastern Mediterranean and the adjacent countries of the Middle East, where the balance between water supply and demand could be significantly altered by climate change.
