The First Three Years of Operational Targeting with the NOAA G-IV

Results from the first three years of operational targeting using the NOAA-G-IV aircraft and GPS dropwindsondes will be presented. Special emphasis will be placed on the ability of various ensemble forecasting systems to show the geographical region (target) most important to improving the forecast of the tropical cyclone, and the ability of operational data assimilation systems to ingest additional data over data-sparse oceanic regions.