The Unified Forecast System (UFS) is by necessity broad in scope, technically involved, and engages many scientists, software engineers, and other people. Community-level governance is necessary for the UFS enterprise to function efficiently and to bridge across a wide range of diverse contributors and collaborators. 

UFS governance functions at the interface of NCEP, NOAA laboratories and programs, and the broader research and development community with the goal of providing end-to-end modeling capacity bridging research and operations. Hence, what is being governed is a community-based, unified, coupled modeling system (the UFS) suitable for application in NCEP’s Production Suite.

Community governance of the UFS is primarily accomplished through the UFS Steering Committee (UFS-SC) and a Technical Oversight Board. The UFS-SC aims to create circumstances in which a pipeline of needed capabilities from the research community reaches suitable levels of readiness to be considered for transition to operations. It is supported by twelve technical Working Groups (see Related Information box of this page), which are comprised of subject matter experts from key areas. Among other things, the Working Groups annually update a Strategic Implementation Plan (SIP).

The UFS grew out of efforts in the National Weather Service (NWS) Office of Science and Technology Integration (OSTI) Modeling Program Office to build the Next Generation Global Prediction System (known to insiders as the NGGPS). The NWS coordinates closely with the NOAA’s Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) Office of Weather and Air Quality/Weather Forecasting (WPO/WX). This forms the evolving basis of governance within NOAA.