Result: Proceedings of the Workshop on High Altitude Data Assimilation and Modeling

The Workshop on High Altitude Data Assimilation and Modeling was held 16-17 September 2014 at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington, DC. It brought together members of the research community to discuss challenges to high altitude atmospheric data assimilation and modeling efforts presented by the anticipated end of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP). From these discussions, five conclusions emerged reflecting the overall consensus of the various participants: (1) Extension of current operational atmospheric prediction systems to higher altitudes requires continued monitoring of meteorological state variables in the 50 100 km region. (2) The end of the DMSP program could lead to a data gap that would degrade current stratospheric forecast capabilities and hinder progress toward integrating upper atmospheric forecast capabilities into space weather prediction systems. (3) Potential replacement systems would ideally be considered as soon as possible. (4) Researchers could conduct targeted studies that demonstrate the utility of existing high-altitude observations, and that also demonstrate how the data gap will negatively affect the performance of current and future systems. (5) The results of these studies could be useful for NRL, DoD and civilian agency management. ; The original document contains color images.