In July 1996 a new limited area numerical weather prediction model and data assimilation system was implemented operationally by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology to provide twice-daily 48-hour forecasts over the Australian region. The forecast model has a horizontal latitude/longitude grid spacing of 0.75° in its operational form, but routinely runs over an inner mesh with a grid spacing of 0.25°. This system, known as LAPS, was developed in the Bureau of Meteorology Research Centre (BMRC). It is the purpose of this paper to provide a detailed description of the new system, to document the results of the pre-operational trials in the BMRC, to present examples of its performance in significant weather events, and to indicate directions of further development.
Puri et al. (Tue,) studied this question.