Observing System Simulation Experiments for a US Wind Lidar space mission

Observing System Simulation Experiments (OSSEs) are a powerful tool to assess the potential impact on the forecast skill of numerical weather prediction of planned or hypothetical future observing systems. Over the last several years an international Joint OSSE collaboration has emerged centered on the use of NASA's and NOAA's data assimilation systems. A Nature Run provided by the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Prediction has undergone extensive validation and a set of simulated reference observations have been subject to a set of calibration experiments. One of the first candidate show observing systems that is being assessed by this system is a wind lidar based on the GWOS concept developed by NASA in response to the NRC Decadal Survey. A set of six-week assimilation and forecast experiments have been set up and executed. We will show the hypothetical impact on NCEP forecast skill of simulated observations from a space-borne hybrid (coherent and direct detections) lidar system providing dual perspective (both vector component) wind observations in the context of the full Global Observing System as currently used by the operation NWP centers.