A theoretical study of the multigrid three-dimensional variational data assimilation scheme using a simple bilinear interpolation algorithm

In order to solve the so-called ＂bull-eye＂ problem caused by using a simple bilinear interpolation as an observational mapping operator in the cost function in the multigrid three-dimensional variational （3DVAR） data assimilation scheme, a smoothing term, equivalent to a penalty term, is introduced into the cost function to serve as a means of troubleshooting. A theoretical analysis is first performed to figure out what on earth results in the issue of ＂bull-eye＂, and then the meaning of such smoothing term is elucidated and the uniqueness of solution of the multigrid 3DVAR with the smoothing term added is discussed through the theoretical deduction for one-dimensional （1D） case, and two idealized data assimilation experiments （one- and two-dimensional （2D） cases）. By exploring the relationship between the smoothing term and the recursive filter theoretically and practically, it is revealed why satisfied analysis results can be achieved by using such proposed solution for the issue of the multigrid 3DVAR.

Evaluation of Two Momentum Control Variable Schemes and Their Impact on the Variational Assimilation of Radar Wind Data:Case Study of a Squall Line

Different choices of control variables in variational assimilation can bring about different influences on the analyzed atmospheric state. Based on the WRF model＇s three-dimensional variational assimilation system, this study compares the be- havior of two momentum control variable options-streamfunction velocity potential （ψ-χ） and horizontal wind components （U-V）-in radar wind data assimilation for a squall line case that occurred in Jiangsu Province on 24 August 2014. The wind increment from the single observation test shows that the ψ-χ control variable scheme produces negative increments in the neighborhood around the observation point because streamfunction and velocity potential preserve integrals of velocity. On the contrary, the U-V control variable scheme objectively reflects the information of the observation itself. Furthermore, radial velocity data from 17 Doppler radars in eastern China are assimilated. As compared to the impact of conventional observation, the assimilation of radar radial velocity based on the U-V control variable scheme significantly improves the mesoscale dynamic field in the initial condition. The enhanced low-level jet stream, water vapor convergence and low-level wind shear result in better squall line forecasting. However, the ψ-χ control variable scheme generates a discontinuous wind field and unrealistic convergence/divergence in the analyzed field, which lead to a degraded precipitation forecast.

A Prototype Regional GSI-based EnKF-Variational Hybrid Data Assimilation System for the Rapid Refresh Forecasting System：Dual-Resolution Implementation and Testing Results

A dual-resolution（DR） version of a regional ensemble Kalman filter（EnKF）-3D ensemble variational（3DEnVar） coupled hybrid data assimilation system is implemented as a prototype for the operational Rapid Refresh forecasting system. The DR 3DEnVar system combines a high-resolution（HR） deterministic background forecast with lower-resolution（LR） EnKF ensemble perturbations used for flow-dependent background error covariance to produce a HR analysis. The computational cost is substantially reduced by running the ensemble forecasts and EnKF analyses at LR. The DR 3DEnVar system is tested with 3-h cycles over a 9-day period using a 40/13-km grid spacing combination. The HR forecasts from the DR hybrid analyses are compared with forecasts launched from HR Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation（GSI） 3D variational（3DVar）analyses, and single LR hybrid analyses interpolated to the HR grid. With the DR 3DEnVar system, a 90% weight for the ensemble covariance yields the lowest forecast errors and the DR hybrid system clearly outperforms the HR GSI 3DVar.Humidity and wind forecasts are also better than those launched from interpolated LR hybrid analyses, but the temperature forecasts are slightly worse. The humidity forecasts are improved most. For precipitation forecasts, the DR 3DEnVar always outperforms HR GSI 3DVar. It also outperforms the LR 3DEnVar, except for the initial forecast period and lower thresholds.

A New Global Four-Dimensional Variational Ocean Data Assimilation System and Its Application

A four-dimensional variational data assimilation （4DVar） system of the LASG/IAP Climate Ocean Model, version 1.0 （LICOM1.0）, named LICOM-3DVM, has been developed using the three-dimensional variational data assimilation of mapped observation （3DVM）, a 4DVar method newly proposed in the past two years. Two experiments with 12-year model integrations were designed to validate it. One is the assimilation run, called ASSM, which incorporated the analyzed weekly sea surface temperature （SST） fields from Reynolds and Smith （OISST） between 1990 and 2001 once a week by the LICOM-3DVM. The other is the control run without any assimilation, named CTL. ASSM shows that the simulated temperatures of the upper ocean （above 50 meters）, especially the SST of equatorial Pacific, coincide with the Tropic Atmosphere Ocean （TAO） mooring data, the World Ocean Atlas 2001 （WOA01） data and the Met Office Hadley Centre＇s sea ice and sea surface temperature （HadISST） data. It decreased the cold bias existing in CTL in the eastern Pacific and produced a Nifio index that agrees with observation well. The validation results suggest that the LICOM-3DVM is able to effectively adjust the model results of the ocean temperature, although it＇s hard to correct the subsurface results and it even makes them worse in some areas due to the incorporation of only surface data. Future development of the LICOM-3DVM is to include subsurface in situ observations and satellite observations to further improve model simulations.

FY-3A SATELLITE MICROWAVE DATA ASSIMILATION EXPERIMENTS IN TROPICAL CYCLONE FORECAST

China's new generation of polar-orbiting meteorological satellite FY-3A was successfully launched on May 26,2008,carrying microwave sounding devices which had similar performance to ATOVS of NOAA series.In order to study the application of microwave sounding data in numerical prediction of typhoons and to improve typhoon forecasting,we assimilated data directly for numerical forecasting of the track and intensity of the 2009 typhoon Morakot(0908)based on the WRF-3DVar system.Results showed that the initial fields of the numerical model due to direct assimilation of FY-3A microwave sounding data was improved much more than that due to assimilation of conventional observations alone,and the improvement was especially significant over the ocean,which is always without conventional observations.The model initial fields were more reasonable in reflecting the initial situation of typhoon circulation as well as temperature and humidity conditions,and typhoon central position at sea was also adjusted.Through direct 3DVar assimilation of FY-3A microwave data,the regional mesoscale model improves the forecasting of typhoon track.Therefore,the FY-3A microwave data could efficiently improve the numerical prediction of typhoons.

Rainfall Assimilation Using a New Four-Dimensional Variational Method:A Single-Point Observation Experiment

Accurate forecast of rainstorms associated with the mei-yu front has been an important issue for the Chinese economy and society. In July 1998 a heavy rainstorm hit the Yangzi River valley and received widespread attention from the public because it caused catastrophic damage in China. Several numerical studies have shown that many forecast models, including Pennsylvania State University National Center for Atmospheric Research’s fifth-generation mesoscale model （MM5）, failed to simulate the heavy precipitation over the Yangzi River valley. This study demonstrates that with the optimal initial conditions from the dimension-reduced projection four-dimensional variational data assimilation （DRP-4DVar） system, MM5 can successfully reproduce these observed rainfall amounts and can capture many important mesoscale features, including the southwestward shear line and the low-level jet stream. The study also indicates that the failure of previous forecasts can be mainly attributed to the lack of mesoscale details in the initial conditions of the models.

Assimilation of Doppler Radar Data with an Ensemble 3DEnVar Approach to Improve Convective Forecasting

An ensemble three-dimensional ensemble-variational(3DEnVar)data assimilation(E3DA)system was developed within the Weather Research and Forecasting model’s 3DVar framework to assimilate radar data to improve convective forecasting.In this system,ensemble perturbations are updated by an ensemble of 3DEnVar and the ensemble forecasts are used to generate the flow-dependent background error covariance.The performance of the E3DA system was first evaluated against one experiment without radar DA and one radar DA experiment with 3DVar,using a severe storm case over southeastern China on 5 June 2009.Results indicated that E3DA improved the quantitative forecast skills of reflectivity and precipitation,as well as their spatial distributions in terms of both intensity and coverage over 3DVar.The root-mean-square error of radial velocity from 3DVar was reduced by E3DA,with stronger low-level wind closer to observation.It was also found that E3DA improved the wind,temperature and water vapor mixing ratio,with the lowest errors at the surface and upper levels.3DVar showed moderate improvements in comparison with forecasts without radar DA.A diagnosis of the analysis revealed that E3DA increased vertical velocity,temperature,and humidity corresponding to the added reflectivity,while 3DVar failed to produce these adjustments,because of the lack of reasonable cross-variable correlations.The performance of E3DA was further verified using two convective cases over southern and southeastern China,and the reflectivity forecast skill was also improved over 3DVar.

Impacts of XBT,TAO,Altimetry and ARGO Observations on the Tropical Pacific Ocean Data Assimilation

This study aims at assessing the relative impacts of four major components of the tropical Pacific Ocean observing system on assimilation of temperature and salinity fields. Observations were collected over a period between January 2001 through June 2003 including temperature data from the expendable bathythermographs （XBT）, thermistor data from the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere Tropical Atmosphere-Ocean （TOGA-TAO） mooring array, sea level anomalies from the Topex/Poseidon and Jason-1 altimetry （T/P-J）, and temperature and salinity profiles from the Array for Real-time Geostrophic Oceanography （ARGO） floats. An efficient three-dimensional variational analysis-based method was introduced to assimilate the above data into the tropical-Pacific circulation model. To evaluate the impact of the individual component of the observing system, four observation system experiments were carried out. The experiment that assimilated all four components of the observing system was taken as the reference. The other three experiments were implemented by withholding one of the four components. Results show that the spatial distribution of the data influences its relative contribution. XBT observations produce the most distinguished effects on temperature analyses in the off-equatorial region due to the large amount of measurements and high quality. Similarly, the impact of TAO is dominant in the equatorial region due to the focus of the spatial distribution. The Topex/Poseidon-Jason-1 can be highly complementary where the XBT and TAO observations are sparse. The contribution of XBT or TAO on the assimilated salinity is made by the model dynamics because no salinity observations from them are assimilated. Therefore, T/P-J, as a main source for providing salinity data, has been shown to have greater impacts than either XBT or TAO on the salinity analysis. Although ARGO includes the subsurface observations, the relatively smaller number of observation makes it have the smallest contribution to the assimilation system.

Radar Data Assimilation of the GRAPES Model and Experimental Results in a Typhoon Case

Constructing βmesoscale weather systems in initial fields remains a challenging problem in a mesoscale numerical weather prediction （NWP） model. Without vertical velocity matching the βmesoscale weather system, convection activities would be suppressed by downdraft and cooling caused by precipitating hydrom eteors. In this study, a method, basing on the threedimensional variational （3DVAR） assimilation technique, was developed to obtain reasonable structures of βmesoscale weather systems by assimilating radar data in a nextgeneration NWP system named GRAPES （the Global and Regional Assimilation and Prediction System） of China. Singlepoint testing indicated that assimilating radial wind significantly improved the horizontal wind but had little effect on the vertical velocity, while assimilating the retrieved vertical velocity （taking Richardson’s equation as the observational operator） can greatly improve the vertical motion. Ex periments on a typhoon show that assimilation of the radial wind data can greatly improve the prediction of the typhoon track, and can ameliorate precipitation to some extent. Assimilating the retrieved vertical velocity and rainwater mixing ratio, and adjusting water vapor and cloud water mixing ratio in the initial fields simultaneously, can significantly improve the tropical cyclone rainfall forecast but has little effect on typhoon path. Joint assimilating these three kinds of radar data gets the best results. Taking into account the scale of different weather systems and representation of observational data, data quality control, error setting of background field and observation data are still requiring further indepth study.

Hybrid three-dimensional variation and particle filtering for nonlinear systems

This work addresses the problem of estimating the states of nonlinear dynamic systems with sparse observations.We present a hybrid three-dimensional variation（3DVar） and particle piltering（PF） method,which combines the advantages of 3DVar and particle-based filters.By minimizing the cost function,this approach will produce a better proposal distribution of the state.Afterwards the stochastic resampling step in standard PF can be avoided through a deterministic scheme.The simulation results show that the performance of the new method is superior to the traditional ensemble Kalman filtering（EnKF） and the standard PF,especially in highly nonlinear systems.

A STUDY ON SATELLITE DATA ASSIMILATION WITH DIFFERENT ATOVS IN TYPHOON NUMERICAL EXPERIMENTS

Based on the newly developed Weather Research and Forecasting model(WRF)and its three-dimensional variational data assimilation(3DVAR)system,this study constructed twelve experiments to explore the impact of direct assimilation of different ATOVS radiance on the intensity and track simulation of super-typhoon Fanapi(2010)using a data assimilation cycle method.The result indicates that the assimilation of ATOVS radiance could improve typhoon intensity effectively.The average bias of the central sea level pressure(CSLP)drops to 18 hPa,compared to 42 hPa in the experiment without data assimilation.However,the influence due to different radiance data is not significant,which is less than 6hPa on average,implying limited improvement from sole assimilation of ATOVS radiance.The track issue is studied in the following steps.First,the radiance from the same sensor of different satellites could produce different effect.For the AMSU-A,NOAA-15 and NOAA-18,they produce equivalent improvement,whereas NOAA-16 produces slightly poor effect.And for the AMSU-B,NOAA-15 and NOAA-16,they produce equivalent and more positive effect than that provided by the AMSU-A.Second,the assimilation radiance from different sensors of the identical satellites could also produce different effect.The assimilation of AMSU-B produces the largest improvement,while the ameliorating effect of HIRS/3assimilation is inferior to that of AMSU-B assimilation,while the AMSU-A assimilation exhibits the poorest improvement.Moreover,the simultaneous assimilation of different radiance could not produce further improvement.Finally,the experiments of simultaneous assimilation radiance from multiple satellites indicate that such assimilation may lead to negative effect due to accumulative bias when adding various radiance data into the data assimilation system.Thus the assimilation of ATOVS radiance from a single satellite may perform better than that from two or three satellites.

Improvement in Background Error Covariances Using Ensemble Forecasts for Assimilation of High-Resolution Satellite Data

Satellite data obtained over synoptic data-sparse regions such as an ocean contribute toward improving the quality of the initial state of limited-area models. Background error covariances are crucial to the proper distribution of satellite-observed information in variational data assimilation. In the NMC （National Meteorological Center） method, background error covariances are underestimated over data-sparse regions such as an ocean because of small differences between different forecast times. Thus, it is necessary to reconstruct and tune the background error covariances so as to maximize the usefulness of the satellite data for the initial state of limited-area models, especially over an ocean where there is a lack of conventional data. In this study, we attempted to estimate background error covariances so as to provide adequate error statistics for data-sparse regions by using ensemble forecasts of optimal perturbations using bred vectors. The background error covariances estimated by the ensemble method reduced the overestimation of error amplitude obtained by the NMC method. By employing an appropriate horizontal length scale to exclude spurious correlations, the ensemble method produced better results than the NMC method in the assimilation of retrieved satellite data. Because the ensemble method distributes observed information over a limited local area, it would be more useful in the analysis of high-resolution satellite data. Accordingly, the performance of forecast models can be improved over the area where the satellite data are assimilated.

A three-dimensional variational ocean data assimilation system:Scheme and preliminary results

A new 3DVAR-based Ocean Variational Analysis System (OVALS) is developed. OVALS is capable of assimilating in situ sea water temperature and salinity observations and satellite altimetry data. As a component of OVALS, a new variational scheme is proposed to assimilate the sea surface height data. This scheme considers both the vertical correlation of background errors and the nonlinear temperature-salinity relationship which is derived from the generalization of the linear balance constraints to the nonlinear in the 3DVAR. By this scheme, the model temperature and salinity fields are directly adjusted from the altimetry data. Additionally, OVALS can assimilate the temperature and salinity profiles from the ARGO floats which have been implemented in recent years and some temperature and salinity data such as from expendable bathythermograph, moored ocean buoys, etc. A 21-year assimilation experiment is carried out by using OVALS and the Tropical Pacific circulation model. The results show that the assimilation system may effectively improve the estimations of temperature and salinity by assimilating all kinds of observations. Moreover, the root mean square errors of temperature and salinity in the upper depth less than 420 m reach 0.63℃ and 0.34 psu.

Assimilation of Total Lightning Data Using the Three-Dimensional Variational Method at Convection-Allowing Resolution

A large number of observational analyses have shown that lightning data can be used to indicate areas of deep convection. It is important to assimilate observed lightning data into numerical models, so that more small-scale information can be incorporated to improve the quality of the initial condition and the subsequent forecasts. In this study, the empirical relationship between flash rate, water vapor mixing ratio, and graupel mixing ratio was used to adjust the model relative humidity, which was then assimilated by using the three-dimensional variational data assimilation system of the Weather Research and Forecasting model in cycling mode at 10-min intervals. To find the appropriate assimilation time-window length that yielded significant improvement in both the initial conditions and subsequent forecasts, four experiments with different assimilation time-window lengths were conducted for a squall line case that occurred on 10 July 2007 in North China. It was found that 60 min was the appropriate assimilation time-window length for this case, and longer assimilation window length was unnecessary since no further improvement was present. Forecasts of 1-h accumulated precipitation during the assimilation period and the subsequent 3-h accumulated precipitation were significantly improved compared with the control experiment without lightning data assimilation. The simulated reflectivity was optimal after 30 min of the forecast, it remained optimal during the following 42 min, and the positive effect from lightning data assimilation began to diminish after 72 min of the forecast. Overall,the improvement from lightning data assimilation can be maintained for about 3 h.

Multi-scale three-dimensional variational data assimilation for high-resolution aerosol observations: Methodology and application

With an increasing number of air quality monitoring stations installed around the Chinese mainland,high-resolution aerosol observations become available,allowing improvements in air pollution monitoring and aerosol forecasting.However,the multi scales(especially small-scale)information included in high-resolution aerosol observations could not be effectively utilized by the traditional three-dimensional variational method(3DVAR).This study attempted to extend the traditional 3DVAR to a multi-scale 3DVAR with two iteration steps,two-scale-3DVAR(TS-3DVAR),to improve the effectiveness of assimilating high-resolution observations.In TS-3DVAR,the large-scale and small-scale components of observation information were decomposed from the original high-resolution observations using a Gaussian smoothing method and then assimilated using the corresponding large-scale or small-scale background error covariances which were derived from the partitioned background error samples.The data assimilation(DA)analysis field generated by TS-3DVAR is more accurate than 3DVAR in reproducing the field’s multi-scale characteristics,which could thus be used as the initial chemical field of the air quality model to improve aerosol forecasting.Particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of less than 2.5μm(PM_(2.5))and 10.0μm(PM_(10)) from the surface air quality monitoring stations from November 01 to November 30,2018 at 00:00 were assimilated daily to verify the effects of TS-3DVAR and 3DVAR on the aerosol analysis and forecast accuracy.The results showed that TS-3DVAR better constrained both large-scale and small-scale,especially the spatial wavelengths in a range of 54-216 km and those above 351 km.The average power spectra of the TS-3DVAR assimilation increment in the two wavelength ranges were 71.70%and 35.33%higher than those of 3DVAR.As a result,the TS-3DVAR was more effective than 3DVAR in improving the accuracy of the initial chemical field,and thereby the forecasting capability for PM_(2.5).In the initial chemical field,the 30-day average correlation coefficient(Corr)of PM_(2.5) of TS-3DVAR was 0.052(6.12%)higher than that of 3DVAR,and the root mean square error(RMSE)of TS-3DVAR was 3.446μg m^(−3)(16.4%)lower than that of 3DVAR.For the forecasting capability for PM_(2.5) mass concentration,the 30-day average Corr of TS-3DVAR during the 0-24 hour forecast period was 0.025(5.08%)higher than that of 3DVAR,and the average RMSE was 2.027μg m^(−3)(4.85%)lower.The positive effect of TS-3DVAR on the improvement of forecasting capability can last for more than 24 h.

A three-dimensional variational data assimilation system for a size-resolved aerosol model: Implementation and application for particulate matter and gaseous pollutant forecasts across China

A three-dimensional variational(3DVAR)data assimilation(DA)system is presented here based on a size-resolved sectional aerosol model,the Model for Simulating Aerosol Interactions and Chemistry(MOSAIC)within the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled to Chemistry(WRF-Chem)model.The use of this approach means that both gaseous pollutants such as SO2,NO2,CO,and O3 as well as particulate matter(PM2.5,PM10)observational data can be assimilated simultaneously.Two one-month parallel simulation experiments were conducted,one with the assimilation of surface hourly concentration observations of the above six pollutants released by the China National Environmental Monitoring Centre(CNEMC)and one without assimilation in order to verify the impact of assimilation on initial chemical fields and subsequent forecasts.Results show that,in the first place,use of the DA system can provide a more accurate model initial field.The root-mean-square error of PM2.5,PM10,SO2,NO2,CO,and O3 mass concentrations in analysis field fell by 29.27μg m-3(53.5%),34.5μg m-3(50.9%),30.36μg m-3(64.2%),8.91μg m-3(39.5%),0.46 mg m-3(47.4%),and 15.11μg m-3(51.0%),respectively,compared to a background field without assimilation.At the same time,mean fraction error was reduced by 42.6%,53.1%,45.2%,43.1%,69.9%,and 48.8%,respectively,while the correlation coefficient increased by 0.51,0.55,0.48,0.38,0.47,0.65,respectively.Secondly,the results of this analysis reveal variable benefits from assimilation on different pollutants.DA significantly improves PM2.5,PM10,and CO forecasts leading to positive effects that last more than 48 h.The positive effects of DA on SO2 and O3 forecasts last up to 8 h but that remains relatively poor for NO2 forecasts.Thirdly,the influence of assimilation varies in different areas.It is possible that the positive effects of DA on PM2.5 and PM10 forecasts can last more than 48 h across most regions of China.Indeed,DA significantly improves SO2 forecasts within 48 h over north China,and much longer CO assimilation benefits(48 h)are found in most regions apart from north and east China and across the Sichuan Basin.DA is able to improve O3 forecasts within 48 h across China with the exception of southwest and northwest regions and the O3 DA benefits in southern China are more evident,while from a spatial distribution perspective,NO2 DA benefits remain relatively poor.

Assimilation and Simulation of Typhoon Rusa (2002) Using the WRF System

Using the recently developed Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) 3DVAR and the WRF model, numerical experiments are conducted for the initialization and simulation of typhoon Rusa (2002). The observational data used in the WRF 3DVAR are conventional Global Telecommunications System (GTS) data and Korean Automatic Weather Station (AWS) surface observations. The Background Error Statistics (BES) via the National Meteorological Center (NMC) method has two different resolutions, that is, a 210-km horizontal grid space from the NCEP global model and a 10-km horizontal resolution from Korean operational forecasts. To improve the performance of the WRF simulation initialized from the WRF 3DVAR analyses, the scale-lengths used in the horizontal background error covariances via recursive filter are tuned in terms of the WRF 3DVAR control variables, streamfunction, velocity potential, unbalanced pressure and specific humidity. The experiments with respect to different background error statistics and different observational data indicate that the subsequent 24-h the WRF model forecasts of typhoon Rusa's track and precipitation are significantly impacted upon the initial fields. Assimilation of the AWS data with the tuned background error statistics obtains improved predictions of the typhoon track and its precipitation.

Analyses and Forecasts of a Tornadic Supercell Outbreak Using a 3DVAR System Ensemble

As part of NOAA＇s ＂Warn-On-Forecast＂ initiative, a convective-scale data assimilation and prediction system was developed using the WRF-ARW model and ARPS 3DVAR data assimilation technique. The system was then evaluated using retrospective short-range ensemble analyses and probabilistic forecasts of the tornadic supercell outbreak event that occurred on 24 May 2011 in Oklahoma, USA. A 36-member multi-physics ensemble system provided the initial and boundary conditions for a 3-km convective-scale ensemble system. Radial velocity and reflectivity observations from four WSR-88 Ds were assimilated into the ensemble using the ARPS 3DVAR technique. Five data assimilation and forecast experiments were conducted to evaluate the sensitivity of the system to data assimilation frequencies, in-cloud temperature adjustment schemes, and fixed- and mixed-microphysics ensembles. The results indicated that the experiment with 5-min assimilation frequency quickly built up the storm and produced a more accurate analysis compared with the 10-min assimilation frequency experiment. The predicted vertical vorticity from the moist-adiabatic in-cloud temperature adjustment scheme was larger in magnitude than that from the latent heat scheme. Cycled data assimilation yielded good forecasts, where the ensemble probability of high vertical vorticity matched reasonably well with the observed tornado damage path. Overall, the results of the study suggest that the 3DVAR analysis and forecast system can provide reasonable forecasts of tornadic supercell storms.

Doppler Radar Data Assimilation with a Local SVD-En3DVar Method

An observation localization scheme is introduced into an ensemble-based three-dimensional variational （3DVar） assimilation method based on the singular value decomposition technique （SVD-En3DVar） to im- prove assimilation skill. A point-by-point analysis technique is adopted in which the weight of each obser- vation decreases with increasing distance between the analysis point and the observation point. A set of numerical experiments, in which simulated Doppler radar data are assimilated into the Weather Research and Forecasting （WRF） model, is designed to test the scheme. The results are compared with those ob- tained using the original global and local patch schemes in SVD-En3DVar, neither of which includes this type of observation localization. The observation localization scheme not only eliminates spurious analysis increments in areas of missing data, but also avoids the discontinuous analysis fields that arise from the local patch scheme. The new scheme provides better analysis fields and a more reasonable short-range rainfall forecast than the original schemes. Additional forecast experiments that assimilate real data from i0 radars indicate that the short-term precipitation forecast skill can be improved by assimilating radar data and the observation localization scheme provides a better forecast than the other two schemes.

Assimilation of HY-2A scatterometer sea surface wind data in a 3DVAR data assimilation system-A case study of Typhoon Bolaven

The scatterometer （SCAT） on-board China＇s HY-2A satellite has the capability to provide high resolution wind vector information over the global ocean surface. These wind vector data produced by the HY-2A scatterometer （HY-2A SCAT） are available to the data assimilation system with real-time information of high accuracy. In this paper, two experiments are designed to investigate the impact of HY-2A SCAT data in the three- dimensional variational assimilation system for the Weather Research and Forecast model （WRF 3DVAR）. The powerful Typhoon Bolaven, which struck South Korea in August 2012, is selected for this case study. The results clearly demonstrate that HY-2A SCAT data can effectively complement the scarce observations over the ocean surface and improve the prediction of the wind and pressure fields of a typhoon. The case study of Typhoon Bolaven exhibits the significant and positive impact of HY- 2A SCAT data on the numerical prediction of the tropical cyclone track.