Recent and Impending Advances in the Use of Earth Observations from Space for Numerical Weather Prediction

Earth Observation from Space (EOS) currently make a considerable impact on the accuracy of numerical weather prediction in the southern hemisphere where they extend the length of a high quality numerical forecast by a factor of four. In the northern hemisphere they extend the length of a high quality forecast by a factor of 1.6. Recently a number of new technologies and instruments have been placed in space for use in numerical weather prediction and a number are soon to follow. These include the Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI) on Himawari-8, the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) and the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) on GOES-R, the wind lidar ADM Aeolus, JPSS and the COSMIC-2 constellation of satellites. The important contribution these new technologies and instruments have and will make, particularly over Australia and in the southern hemisphere, are discussed in some detail. In particular the impact of locally generated ten minute wind data from Himawari-8 on analysis and forecasting will be described. These ten minute data have been tested are now being used in operational numerical weather prediction. They are also being examined in relation to the prediction of severe weather.  Recent result from these activities are presented.