87th AMS Annual Meeting

Monday, 15 January 2007
Recent Modis Data Assimilation Experiments in the NCEP GFS
212B (Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center)
Tom H. Zapotocny, CIMSS/Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI; and J. A. Jung, R. Treadon, and J. F. Le Marshall
Poster PDF (389.1 kB)
Through collaboration with NCEP personnel, as well as substantial NOAA hardware support, the Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation (JCSDA) has obtained the capability to run impact studies of all data types used in the Global Data Assimilation system (GDAS). Such studies have allowed a better understanding of how to utilize current and future in-situ and remotely sensed data types in present-day three-dimensional data assimilation systems.

While still in their relatively early stages, these global GDAS studies have identified results of interest about the forecast impact of existing data types. These studies also have the ability to provide impact studies of new data types coming on-line before they are merged into the operational data stream. A prime example of a data types investigated by the authors which recently made the operational stream are MODIS high-latitude winds. Others currently in testing for operations include AIRS and WINDSAT. Finally, perhaps the biggest advantage of these global studies is that they are completed at the operational resolution of the model (presently T382L64).

Results in this poster will demonstrate a positive forecast impact from high-latitude MODIS winds in both the extratropics and hurricane track forecasts. These results use a newly derived assimilation quality control procedure for MODIS polar winds during both the northern hemisphere winter and summer. This positive impact from MODIS is shown even when including the full complement of other satellite and non-satellite based observations.

Supplementary URL: