Assessment of Assimilating ASCAT Surface Wind Retrievals in the NCEP Global Data Assimilation System

A two-season Observing System Experiment (OSE) was used to quantify the impacts of assimilating the Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) surface winds product distributed by the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMESAT) and the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS). The ASCAT wind retrievals were provided by the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Office (KNMI) and the 50-km resolution ASCAT products were assimilated. The impact of assimilating the ASCAT surface wind product in the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Global Data Assimilation/Global Forecast System (GDAS/GFS) was assessed by comparing the forecast results through 168 11 for the months of August 2008 and January 2009. The NCEP GDAS/GFS was used, at a resolution of T382-64 layers, as the assimilation system and forecast model for these experiments. A control simulation utilizing all the data types assimilated in the operational GDAS was compared to an experimental simulation that added the ASCAT surface winds. Quality control procedures required to assimilate the ASCAT surface winds are discussed. Anomaly correlations (ACs) of geopotential height forecasts as well as geographic distribution of AC of geopotential height forecasts at 1000 and 500 hPa were evaluated for the control and experiment during both seasons. The geographical distribution of forecast impact (F1) on the wind and temperature fields near the surface is also presented. The results of this study show that assimilation of the surface wind retrievals from the ASCAT sensor improve the NCEP GFS wind and temperature forecasts. A positive F1, which suggests the error growth of the experiment is slower than the control, has been realized in the NCEP GDAS/GFS wind and temperature forecasts through 24 h. The ASCAT experiment AC scores show modest forecast improvements from days 4 through 7.