Data Assimilation Impact from the Tropospheric Airborne Meteorological Data Reporting (TAMDAR) System on the GFS Forecast

There are several different aircraft data sources which are currently being reported through the Automated Meteorological Data Relay (AMDAR) system and assimilated into the numerical weather prediction (NWP) models at NOAA/Environmental Modeling Center (EMC).  Domestic aircraft carriers are reported through both the Meteorological Data Collection and Reporting System (MDCRS) and the Aircraft Communication Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS).  In addition to the domestic carriers, AMDAR also reports a number of internationally based carriers.  These data are mainly at cruise level (~35,000 ft) however, a number of carriers also report ascending and descending phase of flight data as well.  Although the majority of the carriers report temperature and winds, there are a few domestic carriers that report specific humidity.  Recently, the Tropospheric Airborne Meteorological Data Reporting (TAMDAR) data has become available from Panasonic Avionics Corporation to NOAA/EMC for assimilation into the NWP models. TAMDAR data differs from other aircraft data in that the TAMDAR instrument is deployed on regional aircraft, and reports temperature, winds and relative humidity at every phase of flight below 700 mb.  This data will fill some of the voids in data sparse regions.  After quality control checks have been performed, this data will be available for testing in the Global Forecast System (GFS).  To do this, a data impact study is currently being performed.  This poster illustrates the impact that these new sources of TAMDAR data have on the GFS forecast.