Assimilation of Radar Radial Velocity with a GSI-based Analysis System for Improved Precipitation Forecasts

The assimilation of Doppler level-2 radial wind observations within the regional application of the gridpoint statistical interpolation system (GSI) has been updated in order to meet future expectations and needs of a convection-allowing ensemble data assimilation and prediction system. Efforts from the early stages of this work include updating the radial wind observation operator to include vertical velocity, incorporating the effects of terminal velocity from hydrometeor sedimentation, and adding vertical velocity as an analysis control variable. Results of  experimental analyses, sensitivity tests, and resulting forecasts will be reported.