Preliminary analysis of the Goshen County tornadic supercell on 5 June 2009 during VORTEX2 using EnKF assimilation of mobile radar and mesonet data

Mobile radar radial velocity data and mobile mesonet surface wind, temperature, and mixing ratio observations collected on 5 June 2009 are assimilated into a WRF-ARW supercell simulation in order to increase the coverage of kinematic and thermodynamic data available for a detailed analysis of storm-scale and mesocyclone-scale features. The EnKF experiments performed include 1 km horizontal resolution and a two-minute data assimilation interval. The preliminary results presented here test the sensitivity of the EnKF results to different data sources, such as the number of mobile radars and the inclusion of mobile mesonet data, the use of homogeneous base-states composed of different proximity soundings, and different model microphysics parameters. The EnKF analyses are compared to dual-Doppler wind syntheses and unassimilated mobile mesonet observations for validation. The preliminary results will be used to examine typically undersampled attributes of the storm, such as the depth and thermodynamic characteristics of the rear-flank outflow (including a possible secondary RFD surge).