Doppler radar wind data assimilation in mesoscale analysis

The development of efficient remote sensing tools, satellite and ground-bas ed, calls for an integrated use of the newly available data and NWP techniq ues to produce very-short-range operational forecasts. The Local Analysis a nd Prediction System (LAPS) has been developed by NOAA-FSL as an integrated system to ingest and analyse meteorological data from different observatio nal sources, i.e. mesonet and regular surface data, radar and profiler data , and satellite imagery. The resulting 3-D data-set contains all relevant m eteorological parameters, that is temperature, pressure, humidity, wind, cl ouds, and other derived variables. Radar data play a key role in accurately describing the mesoscale wind pattern, when no others observational source s are available, particularly at low level where the correlation coefficien t between radar analysis vs raob analysis grew at 0.99-0.95. The resulting fields are used in a continuous assimilation cycle with a limited area mode l for improving the forecast skill over a meso-beta domain. The overall sys tem is presented highlighting the impact of Doppler radar data in the recon struction of missing features and comparing the different scenarios that ca n be foreseen. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.