Natural Science

Volume 6, Issue 8 (April 2014)

ISSN Print: 2150-4091   ISSN Online: 2150-4105

Google-based Impact Factor: 0.74  Citations  h5-index & Ranking

Assimilation of GPS RO Refractivity Data and Its Impact on Simulations of Trade Wind Inversion and a Winter Cold Front

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DOI: 10.4236/ns.2014.68060    4,373 Downloads   6,084 Views  Citations

ABSTRACT

Assimilation of Global Positioning System (GPS) Radio Occultation (RO) refractivity based on WRF-3DVAR is applied to numerical weather predictions (NWP) in Hawaii, where limited conventional observations and poor representation of local circulations in global analysis constrain the quality of numerical weather predictions. For a summer trade wind case, with GPS RO refractivity assimilated, the trade wind inversion is better predicted. For a winter cold front case, the propagation of the cold front is also better simulated when GPS RO refractivity is assimilated. Furthermore, the moist tongue associated with the cold front is better defined and the vertical profiles of temperature and moisture are largely improved when compared to the model run without GPS RO assimilation.

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Zhou, C. and Chen, Y. (2014) Assimilation of GPS RO Refractivity Data and Its Impact on Simulations of Trade Wind Inversion and a Winter Cold Front. Natural Science, 6, 605-614. doi: 10.4236/ns.2014.68060.

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