Wednesday, 14 January 2009
Assimilation of radiosonde-based vertical wind patterns to improve realtime wind profiler retrievals
Hall 5 (Phoenix Convention Center)
Accurate real-time upper level wind measurements provide essential input into operational forecast weather models for their initialization and verification. Although there are a number of ground-based wind profilers available (wind tracer lidar, doppler radar, and acoustical sounders), measuring upper level winds and obtaining a complete continuous vertical wind profile can be problematic and is dependent on favorable atmospheric conditions. In this paper, we describe a methodology to improve wind profiler retrievals by assimilating radiosonde-based vertical wind patterns. The concept is to retrieve reliable and continuous upper level wind information from incomplete or limited range wind profiler measurements. In particular, the objectives are (a) to extend the vertical measurement range of wind profilers, (b) to provide complete, continuous vertical wind profiles from fragmented wind measurements, and (c) to improve the accuracy of present day wind profiler systems. A typical wind profiler scenario in which radiosonde-based wind patterns for a specific geographical location will be outlined.
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