An interactive information and processing system is being developed as an integral part of an experimental climate prediction system for the tropical regions.

In the present phase of this work, we are focusing on the region of Eastern Africa. Later the system will be applied to several other regions over the tropics.

Numerical Model Component:

The center piece of the numerical modeling component is a Regional Climate model developed at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

The model uses the Mercator conformal projection, with a domain size of 5580 km x 3700 km, centered at 31 E, 4S, and horizontal grid spacing of 60 km.

At this resolution, the main features of the bottom topography are well resolved.

The simulation period is October-December 1988, and the model-driving initial and lateral boundary conditions are taken from ECMWF data.

Prior to performing the experimental forecasts and further sensitivity simulations, a number of model integrations have been conducted to investigate the sensitivity of the model performance on variations in the formulation of the following processes; cumulus convection, radiative transfer, land-atmosphere interaction, boundary layer physics, and the lateral boundary forcing.

Interactive user interface:

Simultaneous display of multi-dimensional climate data sets continues to play an increasing role in decision and policy development.

IBM Data Explorer (DX) visualization software interface is being used to provide options for the user in the form of easy-to-use widgets, such as buttons, dials, type-in boxes, etc.

This interactive graphical user interface provides an easy way to maneuver through the multi-dimensional databases and selection of the desired files for viewing.

It can be used to hide the details of file storage from the modeler so that there is no longer need to explicitly request files to be loaded from location of storage.

One of the highlights of this system is an interactive fly-through of the camera making a flight loop around Eastern Africa.

The close up during the flight makes it possible to examine the multi-dimensional data in great detail and yet retain the benefit of covering a large geographic region along the path.

The range of data sets that may be displayed include, temperature, winds, rainfall, land use, water surfaces and topographic features.