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Radar radial wind data assimilation using the time-incremental 4D-Var method implemented to the WRFDA system Cover

Radar radial wind data assimilation using the time-incremental 4D-Var method implemented to the WRFDA system

Open Access
|Dec 2013

Figures & Tables

Fig. 1

Domain configuration. (a) Geographical area for domains 1, 2 and 3 and (b) model terrain height (m) for domain 3. Locations of Namwon, Taebaek and Gwangju cities are also indicated.

Table 1

Brief description for each numerical experiment

Experiment nameDescriptionCONTROLNo radar data are assimilated3DVARRadar data are assimilated using the 3D-Var method4DVARRadar data are assimilated using the 4D-Var method (with single outer loop)OUTERRadar data are assimilated using the 4D-Var method with 3 outer loopsQSVARadar data are assimilated using the time-incremental 4D-Var methodQSVA_LCSame as QSVA experiment except for loose inner-loop stopping criterion
Fig. 2

(a) Observed 6 hours accumulated rainfall (mm 6 h−1) distribution over South Korea from 0600 UTC to 1200 UTC, 6 August 2006. Time series of hourly rainfall (mm h−1) from 0600 UTC to 1200 UTC, 6 August 2006 for the observations (black), CONTROL (blue), 3DVAR (yellow), 4DVAR (green), QSVA (orange) and OUTER (red) experiments at (b) Namwon and (c) Taebaek. Rainfall observations are from the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) surface observations. In the case of numerical experiments, hourly rainfalls at the grid points corresponding to Namwon and Taebaek are shown.

Table 2

Convective available potential energy (CAPE, J kg−1), convective inhibition (CIN, J kg−1), lifting condensation level (LCL, m) and level of free convection (LFC, m) computed from sounding observations of Gwangju at 0000 UTC and 0600 UTC, 6 August 2006

CAPECINLCLLFC0000 UTC, 6 August 200612421745138360600 UTC, 6 August 20061970611521456
Fig. 3

Radar analyses near Namwon area at 0900 UTC, 6 August 2006. (a) Horizontal distribution of divergence (10−4 s−1, shading) and winds (m s−1, vector) at 4-km height. (b) Vertical cross section along the line shown in (a) of vertical wind (m s−1, shading) and divergence (10−4 s−1, negative values are denoted by dashed contours).

Table 3

Cost-function values at the first and last iterations and total number of iterations for the 3DVAR, 4DVAR, OUTER and QSVA experiments

3DVAR4DVAROUTER (2)OUTER (3)OUTER (4)QSVA (0)QSVA (10)QSVA (20)QSVA (30)Initial cost-function value1735.877877.053789.283643.603619.121735.871971.652961.013821.68Final cost-function value976.953640.803597.563561.163565.03976.951788.472796.003563.56Total number of iterations122126262912202225

[i] The number in parenthesis in the OUTER experiment indicates the number of outer loops applied and that in the QSVA experiment indicates the length of the assimilation window (in minute) for each assimilation task.

Table 4

Root mean square errors (RMSEs, m s−1) of O−B (or O−FG) and O−A for zonal wind, meridional wind and radial velocity using radiosonde and radar observations over the Korean Peninsula for the 3DVAR, 4DVAR, OUTER and QSVA experiments

3DVAR4DVAROUTER (2)OUTER (3)QSVA (0)QSVA (10)QSVA (20)QSVA (30)U O−B1.6251.6251.5331.5261.6251.6161.5891.523 O−A1.6161.5331.5261.5221.6161.5891.5231.514V O−B2.4982.4982.3362.3332.4982.4412.4042.334 O−A2.4412.3362.3332.3282.4412.4042.3342.308Rv O−B2.2722.2701.4791.4412.2721.6161.5451.508 O−A1.6031.4461.4311.4171.6031.4791.4651.424Number of assimilated OBSs269112 22612 22812 22826915694914212 228

[i] The number of assimilated radar radial velocity observations is also shown. The number in parenthesis in the OUTER experiment indicates the number of outer loops applied and that in the QSVA experiment indicates the length of the assimilation window (in minute) for each assimilation task.

Fig. 4

Vertical distribution of RMSD of analysis increment for the 4DVAR (green), QSVA (orange) and OUTER (red) experiments. (a) Zonal wind (m s−1) and (b) meridional wind (m s−1). For the QSVA experiment, original first guess (solid) and updated first guesses from analysis of assimilation task with 0 min (dashed), 10 min (dotted) and 20 min (dash-dotted) assimilation window are used in calculating analysis increment. Similarly, for the OUTER experiment, original first guess (solid) and updated first guesses from analysis of the first (dashed) and second (dotted) outer loop are used.

Fig. 5

(a) Percentage error in linearisation (%) and (b) pattern correlation as a function of forecast length for the 4DVAR (green solid line), QSVA_10 (orange dotted line), QSVA_20 (orange dashed line), QSVA_30 (orange solid line) and OUTER (red solid line) experiments.

Table 5

Computing time (hours) and total number of iterations in minimisations of the 4DVAR, OUTER, QSVA and QSVA_LC experiments

4DVAROUTERQSVAQSVA_LCComputing time7.527.2512.9512.05Total number of iterations21737955

[i] In the OUTER experiment, the sum of the first, second and third outer loops is shown. Similarly, in the QSVA and QSVA_LC experiments, the sum of assimilation tasks with assimilation window of 0, 10, 20 and 30 minutes is shown.

Fig. 6

Six hours accumulated rainfall (mm 6 h−1) distribution over South Korea from 0600 UTC to 1200 UTC, 6 August 2006 for the (a) CONTROL, (b) 3DVAR, (c) 4DVAR, (d) QSVA and (e) OUTER experiments. Note that different colour scales are used for the QSVA and OUTER experiments.

Fig. 7

(a) Convective available potential energy (CAPE, J kg−1, shading), divergence (10−5 s−1, negative values are denoted by dashed contours) and winds (m s−1, vector) of 850 hPa at 0600 UTC, 6 August 2006 for the CONTROL experiment. Analysis increments of CAPE (J kg−1, shading), divergence (10−5 s−1, negative values are denoted by dashed contours) and winds (m s−1, vector) at 850 hPa for the (b) 4DVAR and (c) QSVA experiments.

Table 6

Norm of gradient vector at the end of each cost-function minimization for the 4DVAR, OUTER and QSVA experiments

4DVAROUTER (2)OUTER (3)QSVA (0)QSVA (10)QSVA (20)QSVA (30)Gradient norm11.4681.8721.6443.2000.6531.3131.611

[i] The number in parenthesis in the OUTER experiment indicates the number of outer loops applied and that in the QSVA experiment indicates the length of the assimilation window (in minute) for each assimilation task.

Language: English
Page range: 19677 - 19677
Submitted on: Sep 6, 2012
Accepted on: Aug 20, 2013
Published on: Dec 1, 2013
Published by: Stockholm University Press
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

© 2013 Yonghan Choi, Gyu-Ho Lim, Dong-Kyou Lee, published by Stockholm University Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.