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Assimilation of Goes-Derived Skin Temperature Tendencies into Mesoscale Models to Improve Forecasts of near Surface Air Temperature and Mixing RatioA technique has been developed for assimilating GOES-FR skin temperature tendencies into the surface energy budget equation of a mesoscale model so that the simulated rate of temperature chance closely agrees with the satellite observations. A critical assumption of the technique is that the availability of moisture (either from the soil or vegetation) is the least known term in the model's surface energy budget. Therefore, the simulated latent heat flux, which is a function of surface moisture availability, is adjusted based upon differences between the modeled and satellite-observed skin temperature tendencies. An advantage of this technique is that satellite temperature tendencies are assimilated in an energetically consistent manner that avoids energy imbalances and surface stability problems that arise from direct assimilation of surface shelter temperatures. The fact that the rate of change of the satellite skin temperature is used rather than the absolute temperature means that sensor calibration is not as critical. An advantage of this technique for short-range forecasts (0-48 h) is that it does not require a complex land-surface formulation within the atmospheric model. As a result, the need to specify poorly known soil and vegetative characteristics is eliminated. The GOES assimilation technique has been incorporated into the PSU/NCAR MM5. Results will be presented to demonstrate the ability of the assimilation scheme to improve short- term (0-48h) simulations of near-surface air temperature and mixing ratio during the warm season for several selected cases which exhibit a variety of atmospheric and land-surface conditions. In addition, validation of terms in the simulated surface energy budget will be presented using in situ data collected at the Southern Great Plains (SGP) Cloud And Radiation Testbed (CART) site as part of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurements Program (ARM).
Document ID
19990019562
Acquisition Source
Marshall Space Flight Center
Document Type
Other
Authors
Lapenta, William M.
(NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, AL United States)
McNider, Richard T.
(Alabama Univ. Huntsville, AL United States)
Suggs, Ron
(NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, AL United States)
Jedlovec, Gary
(NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, AL United States)
Robertson, Franklin R.
(NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, AL United States)
Date Acquired
August 19, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 1998
Subject Category
Meteorology And Climatology
Meeting Information
Meeting: Numerical Weather Prediction
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Country: United States
Start Date: January 11, 1998
End Date: January 16, 1998
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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