Impact of Combined Assimilation of Wind Profiler and Doppler Radar Data on a Convective-Scale Cycling Forecasting System

Abstract

The two types of wind observations, profiler and radar radial velocity, have been successfully assimilated into numerical weather prediction (NWP) systems. However, the added value of profiler data, especially from a densely deployed profiler network, is unknown when assimilated together with Doppler radar radial velocity. In this article, two combined assimilation strategies of profilers along with radar radial winds are compared within a convective-scale data assimilation (DA) framework. In strategy I, the profiler data are assimilated with conventional observations to generate an intermediate analysis that acts as a prior for radar data assimilation. In strategy II, both profiler and radar data are considered as storm-scale and assimilated within the same pass. Single- and dual-observation assimilation experiments indicate that for strategy I, the profiler DA improvement can be partly canceled by the potentially negative impact of the assimilation of single-radar radial velocity afterward, particularly when the radial wind is nearly orthogonal to the prevailing wind. For strategy II, important complements are provided when profilers are assimilated within the same pass along with radial winds. The diagnostics for a low-level jet case demonstrate that both strategies facilitate improved analyses and forecasts. But strategy II may bring more moderate analysis increments, which indicate mutual constraints of the profiler and radial winds when assimilated within the same pass. The results obtained in 1-month, retrospective cycling experiments also show that the strategy II outperforms the strategy I with slightly better wind and precipitation forecasts.