Improvements in the Localized Aviation Mos Program (lamp) Categorical Visibility and Obstruction to Vision Statistical Guidance

The National Weather Service’s Meteorological Development Laboratory is redeveloping the current LAMP system with special emphasis on aviation weather (Ghirardelli 2005). LAMP is an update system to the Model Output Statistics (MOS) and provides statistically derived guidance for the forecasting of sensible weather elements. The new LAMP system will run hourly producing one hour forecasts spanning 25 projections. LAMP utilizes (1) the most recent observations, (2) statistical MOS guidance, and (3) simple models. The output of the simple models consist of forecasts that predict 1000-mb heights (Reed 1963, Unger 1982), moisture fields (Younkin et al. 1965, Unger 1985), and advect analysis fields such as ceiling height, visibility, sky cover, and present weather (Glahn and Unger 1986) to improve its short-range forecasting skill. LAMP will produce forecast guidance for approximately 1500 sites covering the contiguous United States, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico.