presented by Dr. Volker Wulfmeyer, Director, Institute of Physics and Meteorology
at the University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart
Data sets are only good insofar as they are able to directly close the
gaps between the models and the real state of the atmosphere. Recently,
it has been shown that operational lidar systems provide data sets which
meet these requirements. This offers exciting opportunities to study the
impact of lidar systems on simulations of high-resolution models by
means of data assimilation.
After a short overview of the history of these attempts, several examples are presented demonstrating a significant positive impact of 4-dimensional variational analysis (4DVAR) using water vapor differential absorption lidar (DIAL) on initial fields of mesoscale and even of global models. This is due to the large information content and low errors of this kind of data. Particularly, the first 4DVAR study using DIAL data during IHOP_2002 demonstrated not only a clear improvement of the prediction of convective initiation but also of quantitative precipitation forecast.
Future applications of lidar data assimilation in synergy with other in-situ and remote sensing systems are discussed. Particularly, the role of data assimilation within future field campaigns such as COPS_2007 is highlighted, and it is demonstrated that lidar data assimilation will be
an indispensible tool for future mesoscale process and predictability studies.
Thursday August 25 at 9:30am in FL2-1022. |
