6.4 Observation Sensitivity Experiments with the Hourly Rapid Refresh Using Hybrid-Ensemble/Variational Data Assimilation

Wednesday, 13 January 2016: 2:30 PM
Room 345 ( New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center)
Eric P. James, CIRES/Univ. of Colorado and NOAA/ESRL/Global Systems Division, Boulder, CO; and M. Hu, S. Benjamin, and S. Weygandt

Data denial experiments have been carried out with the hourly updated Rapid Refresh for 10 different observation types including aircraft, raob, surface, GPS-IPW, atmospheric motion vectors, radar reflectivity, GOES, and others. The test period is for a 10-day period in May 2013 and using the hybrid ensemble-variational data assimilation capability within NOAA's Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation (GSI). Results show that aircraft reports are of highest importance for 3-6-9-12h forecasts from the Rapid Refresh for wind, temperature and relative humidity. Surface, GPS-IPW, rawinsonde and other observations contribute with positive impact also.
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