Dr. András Horányi: Impact of single component wind information on global numerical weather prediction

Impact of single component wind information on global numerical weather prediction

Dr. András Horányi, ECMWF, Reading, UK

The presentation will discuss the data assimilation activities at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) related to the quantification of the impacts of single component wind information to the global forecasts of the ECMWF IFS model. The relevance of this work is supported by the planned ADM Aeolus mission of the European Space Agency, which will provide high resolution horizontal line-of-sight (HLOS) wind information.|

The performed Observing System Experiments were using real wind observations, which were transformed into single component wind data.The following main issues were addressed: What is the benefit of wind observations as compared to the mass measurements? What is the benefit of HLOS wind as compared to the vector wind? Can HLOS data provide valuable additional forecasting information on data sparse areas? What is the role and impact of the underlying background error specification? How degraded quality wind information influences the forecast quality? Can simulated data be used in Observing System Experiments? The seminar will try to give answers to these questions and hopefully stimulate some ensuing discussions.