Application of ATOVS Radiance with ARW WRF/GSI Data Assimilation System in the Prediction of Hurricane Katrina

In this study, we evaluated the impact of directly assimilating radiance on Hurricane Katrina forecasts over the Gulf of Mexico in the southeastern United States in August 2005. The ATOVS (e.g., The Advanced Television and Infrared Observation Satellite (TIROS)-N Operational Vertical Sounder) radiance data, the Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation (GSI) three-dimensional variational analysis (3DVAR) system, and the Advanced Research WRF (ARW WRF) model were employed. The results in a series of experiments show that after radiance data assimilation, the intensity and structure of initial fields including atmospheric flow, temperature and moisture have been modified somehow, especially with instruments using microwave bands such as AMSU-A/B. An anomalous southward pressure gradient has been added behind the hurricane center, which made the easterly flow go through the initial vortex center, accelerating westward movement of the hurricane. All data assimilation experiments obtain a similar forecast for the hurricane track before 36 h of model integration. After 36 h, the hurricane tracks in AMSU-A/B experiments are closer to the best track, but the tracks in HIRS3 and control experiments have a bigger error. However, we note that the improvement is limited, all assimilation experiments did not properly depict the deepening of the hurricane center around 1800 UTC 28 August.