Evaluation of upper tropospheric humidity from NCEP analysis and WRF Model Forecast with Kalpana observation during Indian summer monsoon 2010

Abstract

This paper presents an evaluation of upper tropospheric humidity (UTH) fields from National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Global Data Assimilation System (GDAS) analysis and Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) mesoscale model forecast with satellite derived UTH. For this purpose, UTH (weighted average of relative humidity in 200-500 hPa layer) obtained from Indian geostationary satellite Kalpana is compared with the UTH computed from NCEP analysis and WRF model forecast during the summer monsoon, 2010. Kaplana-derived products are not included in the NCEP analysis: therefore, a comparison of the two independent datasets is promising. This study indicates that UTH derived from different sources (Kalpana UTH, NCEP Analysed and subsequent model forecasted UTH) matches very well over the Indian region. However, there are region-specific small departures in UTH which increases the model predicted UTH. © 2012 Royal Meteorological Society.