Improving Prediction and Advancing Understanding of Weather Systems over North Africa and the Tropical Atlantic Using CPEX-CV Lidar Observations

Weather systems over North Africa and the tropical North Atlantic Ocean are greatly modulated by the warm and dry Saharan air layer, Saharan dust, and complex large-scale circulations, such as the African easterly jet (AEJ) and African easterly waves (AEWs). One of the objectives of NASA’s CPEX-AW/CV field campaigns is to collect key information to improve weather forecasts and our understanding of the weather systems over the tropical North Atlantic Ocean. This study will evaluate the impact of assimilating observations from CPEX-CV on weather forecasts using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) dust model and the Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation (GSI) analysis system. Specifically, we will focus on the lidar data, such as the wind profiles from the Doppler Aerosol WiNd lidar (DAWN) and moisture profiles from the High Altitude Lidar Observatory (HALO). To assess to what extent the lidar winds and moisture profiles improve the forecasts, we will diagnose the thermodynamic and dynamic structure of the storms and cloud processes.