Assimilating Global Synthetic Weather Radar in the Weather Research and Forecasting Model over Kwajalein Atoll
Abstract
Global Synthetic Weather Radar (GSWR) data were assimilated into the Weather Research and Forecasting model to determine which assimilation methodology performs best and the difference in performance between a 1-km and a 3-km horizontal grid-spacing configuration. An evaluation of six GSWR assimilation methodologies on a 1-km domain over three case days was used to determine two methodologies that were applied to four additional case days; the two methodologies were also applied on a 3-km domain for all seven case days. The seven case days were used to choose a GSWR assimilation methodology for future use and to determine that for the verification metrics used, the 1-km and 3-km domains perform similarly. Based on this result and that the 1-km domain was approximately nine times slower to run, the 3-km domain will be used in future work to allow more frequently updated forecasts and quicker forecast availability. Use of GSWR is shown to improve the 0-h forecast column maximum reflectivity when convection is sufficiently large to be resolved by GSWR. Higher-resolution observation sources, such as satellite-derived data, should be pursued in the future to improve forecasts of small-scale convection.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2021
- Accession Number
- AD1152542
Entities
People
- Brian P. Reen
- Huaqing Cai
- James J. Ramsey
- John W. Raby
Organizations
- United States Army Research Laboratory