ON THE IMPACT OF SUPER RESOLUTION WSR-88D DOPPLER RADAR DATA ASSIMILATION ON HIGH RESOLUTION NUMERICAL MODEL FORECASTS Metadata

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Title

  • Main Title ON THE IMPACT OF SUPER RESOLUTION WSR-88D DOPPLER RADAR DATA ASSIMILATION ON HIGH RESOLUTION NUMERICAL MODEL FORECASTS

Creator

  • Author: Chiswell, S
    Creator Type: Personal

Contributor

  • Sponsor: United States. Department of Energy.
    Contributor Type: Organization

Publisher

  • Name: Savannah River Site (S.C.)
    Place of Publication: [Aiken, South Carolina]
    Additional Info: SRS

Date

  • Creation: 2009-01-11

Language

  • English

Description

  • Content Description: Assimilation of radar velocity and precipitation fields into high-resolution model simulations can improve precipitation forecasts with decreased 'spin-up' time and improve short-term simulation of boundary layer winds (Benjamin, 2004 & 2007; Xiao, 2008) which is critical to improving plume transport forecasts. Accurate description of wind and turbulence fields is essential to useful atmospheric transport and dispersion results, and any improvement in the accuracy of these fields will make consequence assessment more valuable during both routine operation as well as potential emergency situations. During 2008, the United States National Weather Service (NWS) radars implemented a significant upgrade which increased the real-time level II data resolution to 8 times their previous 'legacy' resolution, from 1 km range gate and 1.0 degree azimuthal resolution to 'super resolution' 250 m range gate and 0.5 degree azimuthal resolution (Fig 1). These radar observations provide reflectivity, velocity and returned power spectra measurements at a range of up to 300 km (460 km for reflectivity) at a frequency of 4-5 minutes and yield up to 13.5 million point observations per level in super-resolution mode. The migration of National Weather Service (NWS) WSR-88D radars to super resolution is expected to improve warning lead times by detecting small scale features sooner with increased reliability; however, current operational mesoscale model domains utilize grid spacing several times larger than the legacy data resolution, and therefore the added resolution of radar data is not fully exploited. The assimilation of super resolution reflectivity and velocity data into high resolution numerical weather model forecasts where grid spacing is comparable to the radar data resolution is investigated here to determine the impact of the improved data resolution on model predictions.

Subject

  • Keyword: Forecasting
  • Keyword: Accuracy
  • Keyword: Atmospheric Circulation
  • Keyword: Doppler Effect
  • Keyword: Radar
  • STI Subject Categories: 54 Environmental Sciences
  • Keyword: Atmospheric Precipitations
  • Keyword: Environmental Transport
  • Keyword: Resolution
  • Keyword: Climate Models

Source

  • Conference: 13th Conference on Integrated Observing and Assimilation Systems for Atmosphere, Oceans, and Land Surface

Collection

  • Name: Office of Scientific & Technical Information Technical Reports
    Code: OSTI

Institution

  • Name: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
    Code: UNTGD

Resource Type

  • Article

Format

  • Text

Identifier

  • Report No.: WSRC-STI-2008-00374
  • Grant Number: DE-AC09-08SR22470
  • Office of Scientific & Technical Information Report Number: 947000
  • Archival Resource Key: ark:/67531/metadc899915

Note

  • Display Note: available
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