The RUC output has been running successfully on the IBM SP computer, as Geoff Manikin described would happen. (There have been some OSO problems last night and this morning.)

Since it is clear that the NCEP Cray C90 is at least several weeks from any use, NCEP, FSL, and OSO have been working on implementing a RUC backup at FSL. All of these organizations have been working toward this over the last few months in case it was needed, and now with the NCEP fire, it is needed.

A version of the RUC code that has the same 40km 1h cycle is running on an FSL computer that has been isolated to boost reliability. Grids from this version will be ftp'd to the OSO server, where they will be available in the usual directories. NCEP and FSL decided to use the FSL RUC/MAPS instead of going back to the old 60km 3h RUC1 running on a smaller Cray. As you might imagine, there is a bit of a frenzy to get all the hooks with this backup and the OSO connection squared away, not to mention NCEP's work to provide backups for the other models.

We'll post more information as we have it.

Stan Benjamin