Identification

Title

Impact of 837 GPS/MET bending angle profiles on assimilation and forecasts for the period June 20 - 30, 1995

Abstract

With a ray-tracing procedure and variational data assimilation techniques, it is now possible to make direct use of radio occultation bending angles, rather than their derived temperature and moisture retrievals, in atmospheric data analysis and assimilation. This paper describes results obtained from including more than 800 GPS/MET bending angle profiles, available over an 11-day period, 20 - 30 June 1995, into the National Centers for Environmental Prediction spectral statistical interpolation analyses. The methodology for assimilating the bending angles (including an impact parameter offset correction) is briefly summarized. Verified with 56 collocated radiosonde profiles, the assimilation of only GPS/MET bending angles improves the temperature and specific humidity analysis above 850 mbar. Even though the number of GPS/MET soundings is still far less than conventional data and operational satellite soundings, our results from two continuous 11-day data assimilation cycles demonstrate a closer fit of both GPS/MET and conventional observations to the analyses between 850 and 200 hPa when the bending angles are incorporated. Including the bending angles also results in a small but consistent improvement in the short-range (6 hours) and medium-range (1 - 5 days) forecast skills, especially in the Southern Hemisphere.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7hq4173

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2001-12-16T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact