Should you cite operational numerical weather prediction models?

A colleague asked me a question about whether it was necessary to cite any published literature on numerical weather prediction models in your scientific papers. My response follows.

I don’t have a rule, and the American Meteorological Society doesn’t either. I’ve seen papers with these models cited and other papers where they are not.

My preference is almost always to cite something, rather than not to. Sure, most active operational forecasters in the US know what these models are now, but what about someone from abroad that picks up your paper and tries to understand it? What about 30 years from now when someone tries to read this paper and doesn’t know what the properties of the model were at that time? Do you know the horizontal grid spacing of NMC’s LFM or the two-layer PE model? They were the common NMC models of their era. Do you know how convection was handled in these models, or what kind of upper-boundary condition was applied?

It is something easy to do. What’s the harm in doing it? Nothing.

What’s the harm in not doing it? Probably nothing, but you can’t be sure.

Just do it. 😉