1. About EF5
1.1. A modeling tool for large scale hydrologic forecasting
The Ensemble Framework For Flash Flood Forecasting (EF5) is a hydrologic modeling platform, originally developed with the goal of simulating surface water flows at continental and global scales for early warning applications.
EF5 is the primary modeling core in the Flooded Locations And Simulated Hydrographs (FLASH) system, an operational system for flash flood warning operations in the United States the National Weather Service (NWS) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The main target of EF5 in FLASH has been the representation of physical processes describing rapid terrain responses to rainfall, typical of flash floods.
Schematic of the Continental United States FLASH system developed at The University of Oklahoma and NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory.
1.2. Flexible architecture for multiple physics representations
EF5 features multiple representations of the macro-physical processes of the water cycle. In its current version, it includes physics from the following three surface water balance modules handling the vertical fluxes of water in the soils and surface runoff generation: Coupled Routing and Excess Storage (CREST), Sacramento Soil Moisture Accounting (SAC-SMA), and Hydrophobic (HP). It also includes two options for flow routing of water across the landscape and into the drainages following flow paths defined by a digital elevation model: linear reservoirs, and the kinematic wave approximation of the 1-D Saint-Venant Equations of open channel flow.
Flowchart of EF5 main modules as presented in Flamig et al. (2020)
Additionally, EF5 features a snowmelt module based on the SNOW-17 model and a heuristic algorithm for inundation mapping are included. EF5 has been designed as a modular architecture, which facilitates the addition of new physical representations as well as pre- and post-processing routines.
1.3. Acknowledgements
Initial support for the development of EF5 was provided by NOAA and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to researchers at The University of Oklahoma and National Severe Storms Laboratory.
Original Developers
Other contributors
To cite EF5, please refer to how to cite ef5.
Warning
🚧 This documentation is currently under active development. Content may change frequently and some sections may be incomplete.