Evaluation of the NMC regional ensemble prediction system during the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games

Abstract

Based on the B08RDP (Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Mesoscale Ensemble Prediction Research and Development Project) that was launched by the World Weather Research Programme (WWRP) in 2004, a regional ensemble prediction system (REPS) at a 15-km horizontal resolution was developed at the National Meteorological Center (NMC) of the China Meteorological Administration (CMA). Supplementing to the forecasters’ subjective affirmation on the promising performance of the REPS during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games (BOG), this paper focuses on the objective verification of the REPS for precipitation forecasts during the BOG period. By use of a set of advanced probabilistic verification scores, the value of the REPS compared to the quasi-operational global ensemble prediction system (GEPS) is assessed for a 36-day period (21 July–24 August 2008). The evaluation here involves different aspects of the REPS and GEPS, including their general forecast skills, specific attributes (reliability and resolution), and related economic values. The results indicate that the REPS generally performs significantly better for the short-range precipitation forecasts than the GEPS, and for light to heavy rainfall events, the REPS provides more skillful forecasts for accumulated 6- and 24-h precipitation. By further identifying the performance of the REPS through the attribute-focused measures, it is found that the advantages of the REPS over the GEPS come from better reliability (smaller biases and better dispersion) and increased resolution. Also, evaluation of a decision-making score reveals that a much larger group of users benefits from using the REPS forecasts than using the single model (the control run) forecasts, especially for the heavy rainfall events.