Rapid Refresh (RAP)

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Composite reflectivity

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Surface Temperature

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850 mb Relative Humidity

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850 mb Wind

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250 mb Wind

The Rapid Refresh is the continental-scale NOAA hourly-updated assimilation/modeling system operational at NCEP. RAP covers North America and is comprised primarily of a numerical forecast model and an analysis/assimilation system to initialize that model. RAP is complemented by the higher-resolution 3km High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) model, which is also updated hourly and covering a smaller geographic domain. NCEP implementations of 3km HRRR
  • version 1 - 30 Sept 2014
  • version 2 - 23 Aug 2016
  • version 3 - 12 July 2018
  • version 4 - IMPLEMENTED 12z Wed 2 Dec 2020
    (run experimentally at GSD/GSL since spring 2019)

    Complete RAP (v1-v3) description in Benjamin et al. 2016, A North American Hourly Assimilation and Model Forecast Cycle: The Rapid Refresh. Mon. Wea. Rev., 144, 1669-1694. Recent RAP/HRRR presentations

    High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR - 3km)

    Access to real-time and archive RAP grids
  • NCEP ftp site for real-time RAP data in GRIB2 format
  • NCEP RAP product inventory
  • NWS/COMET archive of RAP hybrid (native) grids