Why are we having this meeting? The scheduling of this meeting was strongly motivated by a recent decision by the National Weather Service to present forecasts on a fine-resolution grid. The NWS’ experimental National Digital Forecast Database (NDFD) has a nominal grid-spacing of 5 km across the United States and represents a blend of objective forecast guidance and forecaster edits. Early evaluation efforts of the new gridded forecasts have been hampered by the lack of any matching, gridded analysis of the various forecast parameters, which include, among others, temperature, dew-point temperature, wind, precipitation, clouds, and weather. Thus, the National Weather Service has an immediate and critical need to develop a process to produce real-time, NDFD matching resolution, analyses. Yet, this is not solely a National Weather Service need. In fact, demands for similar, high-resolution objective analyses are growing rapidly across our community. These demands rise from many facets, including: a multitude of mesoscale modeling efforts for both operational weather forecasting and fundamental scientific investigation; dispersion modeling for real-time prediction of hazardous materials, air pollution, and homeland defense; environmental issues from the coastal zone to National Forests, including fire management; and, a number of other applications requiring environmental information on high temporal and spatial scales. Additionally, accurate high-resolutions analyses from the basic building blocks of a climate database for use in statistical applications to assessing impacts of climate change. This meeting is intended to bring together various groups who are already working on mesoscale objective analysis methodologies, and to discuss advantages and disadvantages of these methods. Ideally, partnerships can be formed and ideas scoped out that will organize our community’s attempt to meet these growing demands for high-resolution analyses. What are the operational requirements for the AOR? For the National Weather Service, the multi-parameter analyses need to be provided in real time at NDFD-matching resolution (5 km grid spacing, possibly 2.5 km), and on an hourly frequency. Latency of no more than 30 minutes is also required from nominal time of observation to delivery. Parameters are many and diverse, including both basic parameters like temperature and wind, to weather type and intensity, sky cover, and freezing level. What are the science issues that may limit implmentation of the AOR at the outset? What science questions need to be addressed over the next several years in order to lead to improved AORs in the future? Some fundamental science questions regarding how to relate specific physical processes at local scales to gridded fields at 2.5-5 km need to be addressed for this project to succeed. For example, to what extent can analyses resolve the temporal and spatial extent of severe weather events in order to develop adequate statistics for their occurrence? Presuming that the analyses are likely to fail to develop adequate statistics for many types of severe weather, how can these statistics be assessed quantitatively? How do parameterizations of the boundary layer, convection, and other physical processes that may be used in a model to provide the background fields affect the AOR as a function of time of day, season, region? What are the research & development issues that need to be resolved at the outset of the AOR project? What R&D issues need to be addressed over the next several years? Clearly the AOR will be sensitive to the choice(s) for the data assimilation methods employed and the types and quality of the data used. Which assimilation systems show the greatest promise? Can statistical downscaling approaches, such as PRISM, be utilized? What can be learned from the global and regional reanalysis efforts? What, if any, data collection efforts are required? What are the operational/resource limitations for completing AOR? USWRP Analysis of Record Summit Day 1: Tuesday, 29 June 7:30-8:15 AM Registration 8:15-8:30 AM Welcome (Bob Gall). Purpose of Meeting (Brad Colman) Session 1: Overview 8:30-9:00 AM Analysis of Record Issues: An Operational Perspective, Brad Colman, Seattle WFO 9:00-9:30 AM Analysis of Record Issues: A Research Perspective, John Horel, University of Utah 9:30-10:00 AM Analysis of Record Strawman Proposal, Geoff DiMego, NCEP/EMC 10:00-10:30 AM Break Session 2: Other Options and Perspectives 10:30-12:00 N Other perspectives from the operational and research communities (Contributed 20 minute presentations) 12:00-1:00 PM Lunch 1:00 Session 2 Continued 1:00-2:30 PM Other perspectives from the operational and research communities (Contributed 20 minute presentations) 2:30-3:00 PM Break Session 3: Small Group Discussions 3:00-3:15 PM Goals of the breakout sessions 3:15-5:00 PM Breakout Sessions * (1) Prioritization of the research and operational requirements for the AOR: what is absolutely essential at the outset? What are the fundamental characteristics that must be met? * (2) Input data requirements and verification of the AOR: collection of surface data including mesonets, utilization of COOP and other climate data, effective utilization of radar and satellite data, procedures to evaluate the limitations of the AOR. * (3) Data assimilation strategies: evaluation of the NCEP strawman proposal. 5:30-6:30 PM Reception Day 2: Wednesday, 30 June Session 3: Small Group Discussions Continued 8:30-8:45: Plenary session to review progress and goals 8:45-10:15: Small group discussion wrap-up 10:15-10:30: Break 10:30-12:00 Noon: Summary of breakout sessions 12:00-1:00: Lunch 1:00-3:00: Plenary discussion of AOR issues. Strategy for implementation of recommendations 3:00: Adjourn