An observing system simulation exeriment for the laser atmospheric wind sounder (LAWS)

Abstract

A series of observing system simulation experiments (OSSEs) was conducted to assess the potential impact of the Laser Atmospheric Wind Sounder (LAWS) instrument on a 5-day forecast using the Florida State University (FSU) primitive equation multilevel spectral global circulation model. This proposed Earth Observing System satelliteborne instrument is a CO2 Doppler lidar wind sounding system. The instrument's requirement for usable measurements is that clouds or high concentrations of tropospheric aerosols must exist within the sample volume. The inclusion of LAWS wind observations exhibits an overall improvement of the forecast skill for this study. The greatest increase in skill is in the Southern Hemisphere, as can be seen in both the motion and mass fields. The 98° sun-synchronous orbit resolved the polar meteorological features much better than the 55° inclined orbit. Otherwise, the two different orbits were very similar, with the 55° inclined showing a better analysis of the tropics. -from Authors