A Severe Weather Quick Observing System Simulation Experiment (QuickOSSE) of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Radio Occultation (RO) Superconstellations
Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) radio occultations (RO) over the last 10 years have proved to be a valuable and essentially unbiased data source for operational global numerical weather prediction. However, the existing sampling coverage is too sparse in both space and time to support forecasting of severe mesoscale weather. In this study, the case study or quick observing system simulation experiment (Quick-OSSE) framework is used to quantify the impact of vastly increased numbers of GNSS RO profiles on mesoscale weather analysis and forecasting. The current study focuses on a severe convective weather event that produced both a tornado and flash flooding in Oklahoma on 31 May 2013. The WRF Model is used to compute a realistic and faithful depiction of reality. This 2-km "nature run'' (NR) serves as the "truth'' in this study. The NR is sampled by two proposed constellations of GNSS RO receivers that would produce 250 thousand and 2.5 million profiles per day globally. These data are then assimilated using WRF and a 24-member, 18-km-resolution, physics-based ensemble Kalman filter. The data assimilation is cycled hourly and makes use of a nonlocal, excess phase observation operator for RO data. The assimilation of greatly increased numbers of RO profiles produces improved analyses, particularly of the lower-tropospheric moisture fields. The forecast results suggest positive impacts on convective initiation. Additional experiments should be conducted for different weather scenarios and with improved OSSE systems.
Meinen, C. S.; Garzoli, S. L.; Perez, R. C.; Campos, E.; Piola, A. R.; Chidichimo, M. P.; Dong, S. F.; Sato, O. T.;
Published Date:
2017
Source:
Ocean Science, 13(1), 175-194.
Description:
The Deep Western Boundary Current (DWBC) at 34.5 degrees S in the South Atlantic carries a significant fraction of the cold deep limb of the Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC), and therefore its variability affects the meridional heat transport...
This study examines the causes of observed sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the tropical North Atlantic between 1982 and 2015. The emphasis is on the boreal winter and spring seasons, when tropical Atlantic SSTs project strongly onto the At...
Kourafalou, V. H.; Androulidakis, Y. S.; Halliwell, G. R.; Kang, H.; Mehari, M. M.; Le Henaff, M.; Atlas, R.; Lumpkin, R.;
Published Date:
2016
Source:
Progress in Oceanography, 148, 1-25.
Description:
A high resolution, free-running model has been developed for the hurricane region of the North Atlantic Ocean. The model is evaluated with a variety of observations to ensure that it adequately represents both the ocean climatology and variability ov...
Trinanes, J. A.; Olascoaga, M. J.; Goni, G. J.; Maximenko, N. A.; Griffin, D. A.; Hafner, J.;
Published Date:
2016
Source:
Journal of Operational Oceanography, 9(2), 126-138.
Description:
Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 disappeared in March 2014. Potential sites of where the plane entered the water are considered within a vast region of the Indian Ocean. We present a methodology to assess the potential crash site based on where airpla...
Volkov, D. L.; Lee, S. K.; Landerer, F. W.; Lumpkin, R.;
Published Date:
2017
Source:
Geophysical Research Letters, 44(2), 927-936.
Description:
The persistent energy imbalance at the top of the atmosphere, inferred from satellite measurements, indicates that the Earth's climate system continues to accumulate excess heat. As only sparse and irregular measurements of ocean heat below 2000m dep...
Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans, 121(10), 7547-7559.
Description:
The seasonal variability of the Florida Current (FC) transport is often characterized by the presence of an average annual cycle (8% of the variance) of approximate to 3 Sv range peaking in boreal summer. However, the seasonality displayed by the FC ...
Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 74(2), 333-351.
Description:
The in situ generation of easterly waves (EWs) in the east Pacific (EPAC) is investigated using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model. The sensitivity of the model to the suppression of EW forcing by locally generated convective disturbanc...
Laurent, A.; Fennel, K.; Cai, W. J.; Huang, W. J.; Barbero, L.; Wanninkhof, R.;
Published Date:
2017
Source:
Geophysical Research Letters, 44(2), 946-956.
Description:
Nutrient inputs from the Mississippi/Atchafalaya River system into the northern Gulf of Mexico promote high phytoplankton production and lead to high respiration rates. Respiration coupled with water column stratification results in seasonal summer h...
Pendleton, L.; Comte, A.; Langdon, C.; Ekstrom, J. A.; Cooley, S. R.; Suatoni, L.; Beck, M. W.; Brander, L. M.; Burke, L.; Cinner, J. E.; Doherty, C.; Edwards, P. E. T.; Gledhill, D.; Jiang, L. Q.; van Hooidonk, R. J.; Teh, L.; Waldbusser, G. G.; Ritter, J.;
Published Date:
2016
Source:
PLOS ONE, 11(11), 21.
Description:
Reefs and People at Risk Increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere put shallow, warm-water coral reef ecosystems, and the people who depend upon them at risk from two key global environmental stresses: 1) elevated sea surface temperature ...
Androulidakis, Y.; Kourafalou, V.; Halliwell, G.; Le Henaff, M.; Kang, H.; Mehari, M.; Atlas, R.;
Published Date:
2016
Source:
Ocean Dynamics, 66(12), 1559-1588.
Description:
The evolution of three successive hurricanes (Katia, Maria, and Ophelia) is investigated over the river plume area formed by the Amazon and Orinoco river outflows during September of 2011. The study focuses on hurricane impacts on the ocean structure...
Putman, N. F.; Lumpkin, R.; Sacco, A. E.; Mansfield, K. L.;
Published Date:
2016
Source:
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 283(1844), 20161689.
Description:
Predictions of organismal movements in a fluid require knowing the fluid's velocity and potential contributions of the organism's behaviour (e.g. swimming or flying). While theoretical aspects of this work are reasonably well-developed, field-based v...
Enochs, I. C.; Manzello, D. P.; Kolodziej, G.; Noonan, S. H. C.; Valentino, L.; Fabricius, K. E.;
Published Date:
2016
Source:
Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 283(1842), 8.
Description:
Ocean acidification (OA) impacts the physiology of diverse marine taxa; among them corals that create complex reef framework structures. Biological processes operating on coral reef frameworks remain largely unknown from naturally high-carbon-dioxide...
Heron, S. F.; Maynard, J. A.; van Hooidonk, R.; Eakin, C. M.;
Published Date:
2016
Source:
Scientific Reports, 6, 38402.
Description:
Coral reefs across the world's oceans are in the midst of the longest bleaching event on record (from 2014 to at least 2016). As many of the world's reefs are remote, there is limited information on how past thermal conditions have influenced reef co...
van Hooidonk, R.; Maynard, J.; Tamelander, J.; Gove, J.; Ahmadia, G.; Raymundo, L.; Williams, G.; Heron, S. F.; Planes, S.;
Published Date:
2016
Source:
Scientific Reports, 6, 39666.
Description:
Increasingly frequent severe coral bleaching is among the greatest threats to coral reefs posed by climate change. Global climate models (GCMs) project great spatial variation in the timing of annual severe bleaching (ASB) conditions; a point at whic...
Mueller, M. J.; Kren, A. C.; Cucurull, L.; Casey, S. P.; Hoffman, R. N.; Atlas, R.; Peevey, T. R.;
Published Date:
2020
Source:
Monthly Weather Review, 148(7), 3037-3057
Description:
A global observing system simulation experiment (OSSE) was used to assess the potential impact of a proposed Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) radio occultation (RO) constellation on tropical cyclone (TC) track, maximum 10-m wind speed (Vmax)...
Few studies have examined the forecast uncertainties brought about from varying aircraft flight track patterns in targeted observations for extratropical winter storms. To examine the degree of uncertainty in downstream forecasts caused by different ...
Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation (U.S.)
Published Date:
2019
Description:
The mission of the UCAR COSMIC Program (UCAR/COSMIC) is to provide innovative and cost-effective remote sensing observations, data products, and data utilization support, focusing primarily on Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) techniques, to ...
Wulfmeyer, V.; Hardesty, R. M.; Turner, D. D.; Behrendt, A.; Cadeddu, M. P.; Di Girolamo, P.; Schlussel, P.; Van Baelen, J.; Zus, F.;
Published Date:
2015
Source:
Reviews of Geophysics, 53(3), 819-895.
Description:
A review of remote sensing technology for lower tropospheric thermodynamic (TD) profiling is presented with focus on high accuracy and high temporal-vertical resolution. The contributions of these instruments to the understanding of the Earth system ...
Cucurull, L.; Atlas, R.; Li, R.; Mueller, M. J.; Hoffman, R. N.;
Published Date:
2018
Source:
Monthly Weather Review, 146(12), 4247-4259.
Description:
Experiments with a global observing system simulation experiment (OSSE) system based on the recent 7-km-resolution NASA nature run (G5NR) were conducted to determine the potential value of proposed Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) radio occu...
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