NAM Smartinit was developed to provide downscaled surface and near-surface background fields from the NAM nest for the Real-Time Mesoscale Analysis/UnRestricted Mesoscale Analysis (RTMA/URMA) and as an aid for NWS forecasters. These high resolution downscaled fields are available on the following NDFD grids:

2.5 km CONUS
3.0 km Alaska
2.5 km Hawaii
1.25 km Puerto Rico

The CONUS grid has hourly output from 00-36 hours and 3-hourly output from 39-60 hours. The Alaska grid has hourly output from 00-12 hours and 3-hourly output from 15-60 hours. The Hawaii and Puerto Rico grids have hourly output from 00-12 hours and 3-hourly output from 15-84 hours. These datasets are created 4 times per day at 00Z, 06Z, 12Z, and 18Z.

The downscaling technique employed is an empirical method that uses high-resolution consensus terrain and land-sea mask fields created with input from the NWS Regional Centers to add fine scale features to the NDFD higher resolution fields.