New schemes to perturb sea‐surface temperature and soil moisture content in MOGREPS

This article investigates two schemes that perturb sea-surface temperatures (SSTs) and soil moisture content (SMC) in the Met Office Global and Regional Ensemble Prediction System (MOGREPS), to address a known deficiency of a lack of ensemble spread near the surface. Results from a two-month-long trial during the Northern Hemisphere summer show positive benefits from these schemes. These include a decrease in the spread deficit of surface temperature and improved probabilistic verification scores. SST perturbations exhibit a stronger impact than SMC perturbations but, when combined, the increased spread from the two schemes is cumulative. A regional ensemble system driven by the global ensemble members largely reflects the same changes seen in the global ensemble but cycling fields, like SMC, between successive regional forecasts does show some benefit.

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