Ensemble Forecasting at NCEP and the Breeding Method

The breeding method has been used to generate perturbations for ensemble forecasting at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (formerly known as the National Meteorological Center) since December 1992. At that time a single breeding cycle with a pair of bred forecasts was implemented. In March 1994, the ensemble was expanded to seven independent breeding cycles on the Cray C90 supercomputer, and the forecasts were extended to 16 days. This provides 17 independent global forecasts valid for two weeks every day.