AIRS/CrIS Sounding Profile Data Improves the Short-term Weather Forecast of Alaska

Both AIRS and CrIS sounder radiance and profile data can be used to perform data assimilation for Numerical Weather Prediction models. In a previous study [1], we found that the AIRS data profile (derived from NASA) and the CrIS radiance data yield better model performance, in terms of improving short-term weather forecasting, than the AIRS radiance and the CrIS profile (derived from CIMMS). This study focuses on performance comparison of data assimilation by the AIRS profile vs. the CrIS profile (NUCAPS). The experiment runs WRF in four different modes. The GSI is used for the data assimilation. The results are compared with MET tools. The upper atmospheric data from RAOB are used as ground truth in the comparison. The statistical analysis for a monthly 24-hour forecast showed that AIRS profile data have a more positive impact on short-term forecasts than the CrIS profile (NUCAPS) data. The study also found that more data from AIRS than CrIS were assimilated in almost every data assimilation cycle.