scholarly journals An Evaluation of Radiative Transfer Simulations of Cloudy Scenes from a Numerical Weather Prediction Model at Sub-Millimetre Frequencies Using Airborne Observations

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (17) ◽  
pp. 2758
Author(s):  
Stuart Fox

The Ice Cloud Imager (ICI) will be launched on the next generation of EUMETSAT polar-orbiting weather satellites and make passive observations between 183 and 664 GHz which are sensitive to scattering from cloud ice. These observations have the potential to improve weather forecasts through direct assimilation using "all-sky" methods which have been successfully applied to microwave observations up to 200 GHz in current operational systems. This requires sufficiently accurate representations of cloud ice in both numerical weather prediction (NWP) and radiative transfer models. In this study, atmospheric fields from a high-resolution NWP model are used to drive radiative transfer simulations using the Atmospheric Radiative Transfer Simulator (ARTS) and a recently released database of cloud ice optical properties. The simulations are evaluated using measurements between 89 and 874 GHz from five case studies of ice and mixed-phase clouds observed by the Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements (FAAM) BAe-146 research aircraft. The simulations are strongly sensitive to the assumed cloud ice optical properties, but by choosing an appropriate ice crystal model it is possible to simulate realistic brightness temperatures over the full range of sub-millimetre frequencies. This suggests that sub-millimetre observations have the potential to be assimilated into NWP models using the all-sky method.

2014 ◽  
Vol 142 (5) ◽  
pp. 1982-1996 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Hodyss ◽  
Justin G. McLay ◽  
Jon Moskaitis ◽  
Efren A. Serra

Abstract Stochastic parameterization has become commonplace in numerical weather prediction (NWP) models used for probabilistic prediction. Here a specific stochastic parameterization will be related to the theory of stochastic differential equations and shown to be affected strongly by the choice of stochastic calculus. From an NWP perspective the focus will be on ameliorating a common trait of the ensemble distributions of tropical cyclone (TC) tracks (or position); namely, that they generally contain a bias and an underestimate of the variance. With this trait in mind the authors present a stochastic track variance inflation parameterization. This parameterization makes use of a properly constructed stochastic advection term that follows a TC and induces its position to undergo Brownian motion. A central characteristic of Brownian motion is that its variance increases with time, which allows for an effective inflation of an ensemble’s TC track variance. Using this stochastic parameterization the authors present a comparison of the behavior of TCs from the perspective of the stochastic calculi of Itô and Stratonovich within an operational NWP model. The central difference between these two perspectives as pertains to TCs is shown to be properly predicted by the stochastic calculus and the Itô correction. In the cases presented here these differences will manifest as overly intense TCs, which, depending on the strength of the forcing, could lead to problems with numerical stability and physical realism.


Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 89
Author(s):  
Harel. B. Muskatel ◽  
Ulrich Blahak ◽  
Pavel Khain ◽  
Yoav Levi ◽  
Qiang Fu

Parametrization of radiation transfer through clouds is an important factor in the ability of Numerical Weather Prediction models to correctly describe the weather evolution. Here we present a practical parameterization of both liquid droplets and ice optical properties in the longwave and shortwave radiation. An advanced spectral averaging method is used to calculate the extinction coefficient, single scattering albedo, forward scattered fraction and asymmetry factor (bext, v, f, g), taking into account the nonlinear effects of light attenuation in the spectral averaging. An ensemble of particle size distributions was used for the ice optical properties calculations, which enables the effective size range to be extended up to 570 μm and thus be applicable for larger hydrometeor categories such as snow, graupel, and rain. The new parameterization was applied both in the COSMO limited-area model and in ICON global model and was evaluated by using the COSMO model to simulate stratiform ice and water clouds. Numerical weather prediction models usually determine the asymmetry factor as a function of effective size. For the first time in an operational numerical weather prediction (NWP) model, the asymmetry factor is parametrized as a function of aspect ratio. The method is generalized and is available on-line to be readily applied to any optical properties dataset and spectral intervals of a wide range of radiation transfer models and applications.


2014 ◽  
Vol 50 (11) ◽  
pp. 8982-8996 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alla Yurova ◽  
Mikhail Tolstykh ◽  
Mats Nilsson ◽  
Andrey Sirin

2021 ◽  
Vol 94 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-249
Author(s):  
Martin Novák

The article includes a summary of basic information about the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) calculation by the numerical weather prediction (NWP) model ALADIN of the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute (CHMI). Examples of operational outputs for weather forecasters in the CHMI are shown in the first part of this work. The second part includes results of a comparison of computed UTCI values by ALADIN for selected place with UTCI values computed from real measured meteorological data from the same place.


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