Doppler Lidar and Mobile Radiosonde Observation-Based Evaluation of Warn-on-Forecast System Predicted Near-Supercell Environments during TORUS 2019

Details

• Journal Title:
  Weather and Forecasting
• Personal Author:
  Laser, Jordan J. ; Coniglio, Michael C. ; Skinner, Patrick S. ; Smith, Elizabeth N.
• NOAA Program & Office:
  OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research) ; NSSL (National Severe Storms Laboratory) ; CIWRO (Cooperative Institute for Severe and High-Impact Weather Research and Operations)
• Description:
  Observational data collection is extremely hazardous in supercell storm environments, which makes for a scarcity of data used for evaluating the storm-scale guidance from convection allowing models (CAMs) like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Warn-on-Forecast System (WoFS). The Targeted Observations with UAS and Radar of Supercells (TORUS) 2019 field mission provided a rare opportunity to not only collect these observations, but to do so with advanced technology: vertically pointing Doppler lidar. One standing question for WoFS is how the system forecasts the feedback between supercells and their near-storm environment. The lidar can observe vertical profiles of wind over time, creating unique datasets to compare to WoFS kinematic predictions in rapidly evolving severe weather environments. Mobile radiosonde data are also presented to provide a thermodynamic comparison. The five lidar deployments (three of which observed tornadic supercells) analyzed show WoFS accurately predicted general kinematic trends in the inflow environment; however, the predicted feedback between the supercell and its environment, which resulted in enhanced inflow and larger storm-relative helicity (SRH), were muted relative to observations. The radiosonde observations reveal an overprediction of CAPE in WoFS forecasts, both in the near and far field, with an inverse relationship between the CAPE errors and distance from the storm.
• Keywords:
  • Storm environments
  • Supercells
  • Lidar
  • Warn-on-Forecast System (WoFS)
  • Ensembles
  • Model evaluation
  • Model performance
• Source:
  Weather and Forecasting, 37(10), 1783-1804
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.1175/WAF-D-21-0190.1
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  Grant no. NA16OAR4320115
• Rights Information:
  Other
• Compliance:
  Submitted
• Download URL:
  https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/46558/noaa_46558_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 5.74 MB]
• Collection(s):
  Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) ; NOAA Cooperative Institutes
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:c4f7d5a8fdc52ced6b28c9974054921238e2cfe26ab3b8651583a4e5d4437925