Assimilation of lidar back-scatter and wind retrievals of planetary
boundary layer height into WRF atmospheric forecast states
Abstract
Lidar backscatter and wind retrievals of the planetary boundary layer
height (PBLH) are assimilated into forecasts from the NASA Unified -
Weather and Research Forecast (NU-WRF) model during the Plains Elevated
Convection Convection at Night (PECAN) campaign on July 11, 2015 in
Greensburg, Kansas, using error statistics collected from the model
profiles to compute the necessary covariance matrices. Assimilation of
the observed PBLH was found to improve the temperature, water vapor and
velocity profiles relative to independent sonde profiles in the late
afternoon, while little improvement was seen during the night and early
morning. The computed forecast error covariances between the PBLH and
state variables were found to rise in the late afternoon, leading to the
larger improvements at this time.