Assessing the impact of Airborne Doppler Lidar wind profiles on hurricane track and intensity forecasts

A series of observing system simulation experiments (OSSEs) are conducted with an advanced research version of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model and its variational data assimilation system (WRF-Var) to assess the impact of airborne Doppler Lidar wind profiles on hurricane forecasting. Different observational configurations (e.g., horizontal and vertical resolutions and data distributions, time frequencies, sampling locations relative to the vortex position etc.) of the wind profiles are evaluated to identify the best possible configuration of these airborne Doppler lidar wind observations in improving the forecasts of hurricane track, intensity and inner core structures. The effectiveness of data assimilation methods in assimilating these airborne lidar data is also evaluated.