NOAA MRMS: Multi-Radar/Multi-Sensor Severe Weather Products

NOAA's Multi-Radar/Multi-Sensor System produces over 100 automated severe weather, transportation, and precipitation products. The system integrates data from multiple radars, surface and upper air observations, lightning detection, satellites, and forecast models. MRMS was operationally deployed in 2014 and upgraded to version 12 in October 2020.

Use Cases

• Diagnose hail, wind, and tornado threats based on integrated radar and sensor data.
• Estimate quantitative precipitation for hydrological modeling and flood forecasting.
• Detect aviation hazards like icing and turbulence based on multi-sensor algorithms.
• Test and develop new weather products for the FAA's NextGen program.

Strengths

• Produces over 100 distinct weather products.
• Integrates data from multiple sensor types and forecast models.
• Operational since 2014 with a major science upgrade in 2020.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Users are advised to exercise caution with version 11 products released before October 14, 2020.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)

Collection Method

Automated integration of data from radars, surface stations, upper air observations, lightning detection, satellites, and forecast models.