Ars Technica: A week before Superstorm Sandy struck the coast of
New Jersey, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather
Forecasts (ECMWF) predicted the storm would indeed make
landfall, whereas the US National Weather Service (NWS) had the
storm veering off into the Atlantic Ocean. The NWS model fell
into line with the ECMWF model three days later and enabled the
NWS to issue timely, life-saving warnings. Still, the apparent
shortcoming of the NWS model has highlighted a gap in investment
between the US and Europe, writes Scott Johnson for Ars
Technica. Not only does the ECMWF model run on a faster
supercomputer than the NWS model does, but the European model
has finer spatial and temporal resolution. Both advantages
enhance accuracy. Comparisons aside, the ECMWF and NWS models
rely on data gathered by Earth-observing satellites. If that
fleet is not replenished, the accuracy of weather prediction
will suffer. Indeed, after Sandy had dissipated, the ECMWF reran
its model with data available five days before