Global Forecast System

As with most works of the U.S. government, GFS data is not copyrighted and is available for free in the public domain under provisions of U.S. law.

Because of this, the model serves as the basis for the forecasts of numerous private, commercial, and foreign weather companies.

Unlike the recently-upgraded ECMWF, the new GFS behaves a bit differently in the tropics and in other regions compared to the previous version.

In 2019, a major upgrade was held for the GFS, converting it from the GSM (Global Spectral Model) to the new FV3 dycore.

Horizontal and vertical resolution remained the same but this set the foundation for what is now known as the UFS (Unified Forecast System).

On March 22, 2021, the NOAA upgraded the GFS model, coupling it with the WaveWatch III global wave model, which will increase the GFS's resolution from 64 to 127 vertical levels, while extending the WaveWatch III forecasting window from 10 to 16 days.

An example of a forecast product from the GFS, in this case a 96-hour forecast of 850 mb geopotential height and temperature