Assimilation of Simulated TROPICS Radiance Observations in a Regional OSSE

The Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats (TROPICS) constellation currently in development will be comprised of six Micro-sized Microwave Atmospheric Satellite (MicroMAS-2) CubeSats, each equipped with a 12-channel microwave radiometer providing measurements of temperature, moisture, precipitation, and cloud ice. The potential impact of TROPICS radiances on tropical cyclone analyses and forecasts will be explored through a regional observing system simulation experiment (OSSE), wherein radiances simulated with the Community Radiative Transfer Model (CRTM) from the Nolan et al. (2013) hurricane nature run are assimilated into HWRF. Efforts to add and optimize the new radiances with both three-dimensional variational (3DVAR) and ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) frameworks will be shown, along with preliminary assessments of the impact on tropical cyclone track, intensity, and structure.