X-band, mobile Doppler radar data collected in a tornadic thunderstorm: Data assimilation experiments

On 4 May 2007, a mobile, dual-polarized, X-band Doppler radar was used to collect volumetric reflectivity and velocity data in a cyclic tornadic thunderstorm that later produced an EF5 tornado near Greensburg, Kansas. Sector scans were collected for a period of over one hour, at elevation angles ranging up to 20 degrees. Contemporaneous data were also collected by the WSR-88D radar at Dodge City, Kansas. These data were assimilated into the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) numerical weather prediction model using the Advanced Research WRF (WRF-ARW) model and the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) module within the freely available Data Assimilation Research Testbed (WRF/DART) package. Preliminary comparisons of these data assimilation experiments will be presented and their implications for tornadic thunderstorm forecasting discussed.