THE JOINT NUMERICAL TESTBED (JNT) HOUSED WITHIN THE RESEARCH APPLICATIONS LABORATORY (RAL) AT THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH (NCAR) HAS STARTED A COLLABORATION WITH NATIONAL AERONAUTIC AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION (NASA) COORDINATED COMMUNITY MODELING CENTER (CCMC). THE GOAL IS TO EXPAND THE CAPABILITY OF THE MODEL EVALUATION TOOLS (MET) UNIFIED VERIFICATION SYSTEM CALLED METPLUS TO INCLUDE SUPPORT FOR SPACE WEATHER DATA. CCMC PLANS TO START TO USE METPLUS IN ITS VERIFICATION PROJECTS INCLUDING A WEB-BASED VALIDATION TOOL AND HENCE WOULD LIKE TO WORK DIRECTLY WITH JNT TO EFFICIENTLY ADD THE CAPABILITY. THE CCMC IS A MULTI-AGENCY PARTNERSHIP TO ENABLE SUPPORT AND PERFORM THE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT FOR NEXT-GENERATION SPACE SCIENCE AND SPACE WEATHER MODELS. THEY PROVIDE ACCESS TO MODERN SPACE RESEARCH MODELS TO THE SPACE WEATHER COMMUNITY AND SUPPORT FOR SPACE WEATHER FORECASTERS. THEY ALSO TEST AND EVALUATE MODELS AND PROVIDE SPACE SCIENCE EDUCATION TO THE COMMUNITY. THEIR ROLE IN THE SPACE WEATHER COMMUNITY IS ANALOGOUS TO THE DEVELOPMENTAL TESTBED CENTER IN THE TERRESTRIAL WEATHER COMMUNITY. THE DTC IS A NATIONALLY DISTRIBUTED FACILITY WHERE NUMERICAL (TERRESTRIAL) WEATHER PREDICTION (NWP) CAN BE TESTED AND EVALUATED FOR TRANSITION INTO OPERATIONS. NCAR JNT IS THE HOST FOR THE DTC DIRECTOR AND CONTRIBUTES STRONGLY TO THE DTC EFFORTS BY LEVERAGING FROM BOTH DTC PARTNERS AND PROJECT WITHIN THE JNT ITSELF. ONE OF THE CORNERSTONES OF ALL TESTING AND EVALUATION WITHIN THE JNT IS METPLUS WHICH IS SUPPORTED TO THE COMMUNITY THROUGH THE DTC. METPLUS IS AN INTEGRATED CAPABILITY THAT CONSISTS OF MET THE METVIEWER DATABASE AND DISPLAY PACKAGE AND A PYTHON FRAMEWORK TO PASS DATA FROM ONE TOOL TO THE NEXT. THE PYTHON SCRIPTING MAKES THE SYSTEM EASY TO SET UP AND CONFIGURE AND ALLOWS DEVELOPERS THE FLEXIBILITY TO ADD NEW METHODS TO METPLUS. OVER THE PAST DECADE THE MET COMMUNITY HAS GROWN TO OVER 3 500 REGISTERED USERS. IT CURRENTLY SUPPORTS 85 TRADITIONAL STATISTICAL METHODS AND SEVERAL NON-TRADITIONAL METHODS AND IS BEING DEVELOPED VIA FUNDING FROM SEVERAL ORGANIZATIONS INCLUDING NOAA NCAR THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION (NSF) THE UNITED STATES AIR FORCE (USAF) AND SEVERAL OTHER JNT PROJECTS. METPLUS WAS SELECTED IN 2015 TO BECOME THE FOUNDATION OF THE NEXT GENERATION GLOBAL PREDICTION SYSTEM (NGGPS) WHOLE ATMOSPHERE UNIFIED FORECAST SYSTEM (UFS) VERIFICATION AND VALIDATION CAPABILITY. MET HAS SUPPORT FOR EVALUATION OF MANY FOCUS AREAS AND TIME-SCALES OF MODEL DEVELOPMENT INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO: HIGH RESOLUTION SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL 1 REGIONAL MESOSCALE GLOBAL SUB-SEASONAL TO SEASONAL DECADAL TROPICAL CYCLONES AND EXTRA-TROPICAL CYCLONE PREDICTION. THE GOALS OF THIS PROJECT IS TO HAVE JNT AND CCMC WORK COLLABORATIVELY TO TEST DIFFERENT SPACE WEATHER MODEL OUTPUT FORMATS PROVIDED BY CCMC AND TO ADD CAPABILITY REQUIRED TO ACCEPT SOME STANDARD FORMATS FROM THE SPACE WEATHER COMMUNITY INCLUDING THE NECESSARY METADATA. BY THE END OF THIS PROJECT METPLUS WILL ABLE TO HANDLE CERTAIN STANDARD SPACE WEATHER FORMATS OF 1D 2D AND 3D DATA AND SHOULD INCLUDE USE-CASES (EXAMPLE VERIFICATION WORKFLOWS) TO DEMONSTRATE HOW TO USE THE TOOLS. THIS PROJECT HAS A MUCH BROADER IMPACT IN THAT BY ADDING A GENERAL SPACE WEATHER CAPABILITY TO METPLUS SOFTWARE ANY HELIO SCIENTIST WORLDWIDE CAN USE IT FOR THEIR ANALYSIS (INCLUDING USING THE SOURCE CODE DIRECTLY). THIS SUPPORTS THE NGGPS GOALS FOR THE UFS THE MULTI-AGENCY NATIONAL EARTH SYSTEM PREDICTION CAPABILITY (NESPC) EFFORT AND NCAR S PLANS FOR A FULLY COUPLED WHOLE ATMOSPHERE MODEL (WAM AKA EARTH SYSTEM MODEL) THROUGH THE SINGLETRACK PROJECT.