2026 AR Recon workshop and 2nd Observational campaigns workshop for better weather forecasts
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2026 AR Recon workshop
Agenda times automatically adjust to the selected time zone
| Monday, 29 June 2026 | Speaker(s) | |
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| Opening | ||
| 09:00 – 09:30 | Arrival and registration | |
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Session 1: AR Recon Operations
Moderator: TBC |
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| 09:30 – 10:00 | AR Recon Overview |
Marty Ralph (CW3E, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego)
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| 10:00 – 10:30 | US Air Force Reserve Command Perspective on AR Recon: Past, Present and Future |
TBC
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| 10:30 – 11:00 | Enhancing Global Weather Prediction: Operational Milestones, Challenges, and Fleet Modernization of the NOAA Atmospheric Rivers Reconnaissance Effort |
Nikki Hathaway (NOAA AOC)
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| 11:00 – 11:30 | Coffee break | |
| 11:30 – 12:00 | Sampling Synoptic Scale Patterns in the Western Hemisphere with Airborne Radio Occultation Observations during GARRP 2026 |
Noah Barton (Scripps Institution of Oceanography)
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| 12:00 – 12:30 | Buoy Program |
TBC
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| 12:30 – 14:00 | Lunch break | |
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Session 2: AR Recon Operations
Moderator: TBC
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| 14:00 – 14:30 | Observed Air–Sea Interaction During Atmospheric River Events in the Central Pacific |
J. Thomas Farrar (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
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| 14:30 – 15:00 | Evolution of Center for Western Weather and Water Extreme’s Land-Based Observing Efforts and Coordination with Atmospheric River Reconnaissance |
Subin Yoon (University of California San Diego)
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| 15:00 – 15:30 |
AR Recon’s “Final Mile”: Mobile Radar Platforms and the RAPID-FIRE Field Campaign
Virtual presentation |
Jonathan Rutz (Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes)
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| 15:30 – 16:00 | Coffee break | |
| 16:00 – 16:30 | Observing Atmospheric Rivers with NASA's Current and Next Generation Satellite Missions |
Derek Posselt (Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology)
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| 16:30 – 17:00 | Importance of AR Recon |
TBC
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| 17:00 – 17:15 | Poster introductions | |
| 17:15 – 18:45 | Icebreaker and poster session | |
2026 AR Recon workshop
Agenda times automatically adjust to the selected time zone
| Tuesday, 30 June 2026 | Speaker(s) | |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome | ||
| 09:15 – 09:30 | Welcome to Day 2 |
Marty Ralph (CW3E, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego)
Vijay Tallapragada (NOAA/NWS/NCEP/EMC)
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Session 3: Modelling, DA and Impact Studies
Moderator: TBC |
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| 09:30 – 09:50 | Impact of AR Recon (and GARRP) Observations on NCEP Operational GFS Forecasts |
Vijay Tallapragada (NOAA/NWS/NCEP/EMC)
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| 09:50 – 10:10 |
AR-AFSv2: Enhancing Near-Real-Time Atmospheric River Forecasts for the 2025–2026 Winter Season in the US West Coast
Virtual presentation |
Keqin Wu (Lynker at ECM/NCEP/NOAA)
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| 10:10 – 10:30 | Mediterranean Extreme Events Experiment (M3E) and Storm Harry |
David Lavers (ECMWF)
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| 10:30 – 10:50 | Tropical and Extratropical Pacific Buoy Surface Pressure Observation Impacts |
Carolyn Reynolds (U.S. Naval Research Laboratory)
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| 10:50 – 11:00 |
Assessing the Impact of WindBorne Balloons on the February 2026 AR and East Coast Blizzard through Data Denial Experiments
Virtual presentation |
Tomer Burg (WindBorne Systems)
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| 11:10 – 11:30 | Coffee break | |
| 11:30 – 11:50 |
Evaluation of 2026 AR Recon Observations for the Analysis and Forecasting of Atmospheric Rivers and Downstream Winter Storms Using MPAS-JEDI
Virtual presentation |
Minghua Zheng (UC San Diego)
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| 11:50 – 12:10 | Assessing the Impacts of Airborne Radio Occultation Assimilation in AR Recon 2025 and Its Interactions with Other Observations in MPAS-JEDI |
Nghi Do (UC San Diego)
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| 12:10 – 12:30 | Impact of 2D ROPP Forward Operators and Airborne Radio Occultation Assimilation on Global Numerical Weather Prediction |
Hui Christophersen (U.S. Naval Research Laboratory)
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| 12:30 – 14:00 | Lunch break | |
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Session 4: Science Advances
Moderator: TBC |
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| 14:00 – 14:20 | Dynamically Linking Two High-Impact Atmospheric River Events |
James Doyle (U.S. Naval Research Laboratory)
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| 14:20 – 14:40 | Taking Hyperspectral Data Inversion and Assimilation to a new Limit |
Katerina Giamalaki (University of Hawaii at Manoa)
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| 14:40 – 15:00 | The Anti-AR of March 2026: Dynamics Leading to Extreme Heat over the Western U.S. |
Chris Davis (University of Massachusetts, Amherst)
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| 15:00 – 15:20 | Investigating the Impact of Numerical Model Uncertainty in the Marine Boundary Layer on the Predictability of Atmospheric Rivers and Onshore Precipitation |
Kevin Lupo (Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego)
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| 15:20 – 15:50 | West-WRF Physics and AI: CW3E's Latest Developments for the Prediction of Atmospheric Rivers and Extreme Events |
Luca Delle Monache (CW3E/SIO/UCSD)
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| 15:40 – 16:00 | Coffee break | |
| 16:00 – 17:00 | Panel Discussion - Future of AR Recon |
TBC
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2nd Observational campaigns workshop for better weather forecasts
Agenda times automatically adjust to the selected time zone
| Wednesday, 1 July 2026 | Speaker(s) | |
|---|---|---|
| Morning session | ||
| 09:00 – 09:30 | Introduction |
TBC
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| 09:30 – 10:00 | The THORPEX Legacy: Achievements and lessons for the future from 10 years of THORPEX observational campaigns |
David Richardson (ECMWF)
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| 10:00 – 10:30 | Meteorological Linkages Between the Field Campaigns of January-February 2026 |
Chris Davis (University of Massachusetts, Amherst)
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| 10:30 – 11:00 | TBC |
Marty Ralph (CW3E, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego)
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| 10:30 – 11:00 | Coffee break | |
| 11:00 – 11:30 | Missing pieces in a weather forecasting puzzle? |
Richard Forbes (ECMWF)
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| 11:30 – 11:50 | Observations distinguishing processes affecting weather system dynamics |
John Methven (University of Reading)
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| 11:50 – 12:10 | Airborne campaigns for better understanding Arctic amplification |
Susanne Crewell (University of Cologne)
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| 12:10 – 12:30 | TBC | |
| 12:30 – 14:00 | Lunch break | |
| Afternoon session | ||
| 14:00 – 14:20 | Observing high-impact winter cyclones with coordinated multi-platform measurements during NAWDIC |
Bastian Kirsch (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)
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| 14:20 – 14:40 | NASA’s NURTURE Field Campaign: High-Resolution Observations of the Atmospheric Dynamics Resulting in High-Impact Weather |
Steven Cavallo (University of Oklahoma)
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| 14:40 – 15:00 | The TEAMx Observational Campaign |
Mathias Rotach (University of Innsbruck)
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| 15:00 – 15:20 | The Tropical Pacific Observing System (TPOS) Equatorial Pacific Experiment (TEPEX): Bridging Tropical Air-Sea Coupling and Global Forecast Accuracy |
Jose Algarin (NOAA Climate Program Office)
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| 15:20 – 15:50 | Coffee break | |
| 15:50 – 16:10 | Atmospheric River Dropsonde Observations During the NAWDIC Campaign |
Magdalena Kracheletz (KIT)
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| 16:10 – 16:30 | WindBorne Atlas: A Global Sounding Balloon Constellation |
Todd Hutchinson (WindBorne Systems)
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| 16:30 – 17:30 | Poster session | |
2nd Observational campaigns workshop for better weather forecasts
Agenda times automatically adjust to the selected time zone
| Thursday, 2 July 2026 | Speaker(s) | |
|---|---|---|
| Morning Session | ||
| 09:00 – 09:20 | GTS to WIS2.0 data acquisition migration at ECWMF |
Cristiano Zanna (ECMWF)
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| 09:20 – 09:40 |
Merged Observatory Data Files to support model validation and development
Virtual presentation |
Roberta Pirazzini (Finnish Meteorological Institute)
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| 09:40 – 10:00 | Mapping campaigns |
Linus Magnusson (ECMWF)
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| 10:00 – 10:20 | Discussion on data sharing after campaigns | |
| 10:20 – 10:50 | Coffee break | |
| 10:50 – 11:10 | Evaluation of the possible improvements of NWP products with the integration of observational data from dropsondes released from stratospheric platforms. |
Diana Islas Flores (University of Reading)
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| 11:10 – 11:30 | Quality and use of UAS observations (Bäver project - Sweden) |
Jose Faundez Alarcon (SMHI)
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| 11:30 – 11:50 | Drifting buoys data denial studies and impact of field campaign data |
Magnus Lindskog (ECMWF)
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| 11:50 – 12:10 | Weather forecasting during Arctic expeditions: Experiences from ARTofMELT |
Michael Tjernström (Stockholm University)
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| 12:10 – 12:30 | Observation influence in convective-scale data assimilation: Reanalysis and PAI diagnostics for the Swabian MOSES 2023 campaign in southwest Germany |
Maurus Borne (KIT)
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| 12:30 – 14:00 | Lunch break | |
| Afternoon session | ||
| 14:00 – 14:20 | Improving mountain weather forecasts using TEAMx-UK observations |
Helen Dacre (University of Reading)
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| 14:20 – 14:40 | FESSTVaL five years after: Insights from the field experiment on sub-mesoscale spatio-temporal variability in Lindenberg |
Bastian Kirsch (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)
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| 14:40 – 15:00 | Validation of vertical moisture structure in cold sectors of extratropical cyclones based on airborne lidar observations obtained during the NAWDIC campaign |
Annabell Weber (DLR)
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| 15:00 – 15:20 | Spaceborne radar and lidar: from model evaluation to assimilation |
Robin Hogan (ECMWF)
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| 15:20 – 15:50 | Coffee break | |
| 15:50 – 16:10 | Validation of ECMWF forecasts of the midlatitude waveguide nearby divergence using AR Recon dropwindsondes |
Ryan Torn (University at Albany, SUNY)
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| 16:10 – 16:30 | Evaluating the lower stratospheric moist bias using airborne lidar and radiosonde observations |
Andreas Schäfler
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| 16:30 – 16:50 | Using the Atmosphere-Ocean Single-Column Model (AOSCM) with HALO-AC3 and other observational campaigns to understand model representation of warm and moist air intrusions to the Arctic |
Gunilla Svensson (Stockholm University)
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| 16:50 – 17:10 | Towards improving Arctic liquid cloud representation in the ECMWF model using MOSAiC observations |
Luise Schulte (ECMWF Visiting Scientist)
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| 17:10 – 17:30 | SvalMIZ field campaigns for coupled NWP evaluation |
Sarah Keeley (ECMWF)
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| Dinner | ||
2nd Observational campaigns workshop for better weather forecasts
Agenda times automatically adjust to the selected time zone
| Friday, 3 July 2026 | Speaker(s) | |
|---|---|---|
| Closing session | ||
| 09:00 – 09:20 | Field campaign data in observation-driven AI weather prediction: opportunities and challenges |
Peter Lean (ECMWF)
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| 09:20 – 09:40 | Machine Learning Forecast Sensitivity |
James Doyle (U.S. Naval Research Laboratory)
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| 09:40 – 10:00 |
Observational campaigns in the age of AI: introducing ORCAS
Virtual presentation |
Clare Eayrs (New York University)
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| 10:00 – 10:20 | The Need for an Integrated, Multi-Scale Observational and Modeling Initiative to Improve Process Understanding of the Monsoon in Semi-arid Regions |
Bart Geerts (University of Wyoming)
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| 10:20 – 10:50 | Coffee break | |
| 10:50 – 11:10 | TBC | |
| 11:10 – 12:10 | Panel discussion | |
| 12:10 – 12:30 | Wrap up | |
| Lunch | ||