An Observing System Simulation Experiment for the Laser Atmospheric Wind Sounder (LAWS).

Abstract A series of observing system simulation experiments (OSSES) was conducted to assess the potential impact of the Laser Atmospheric Wind Sounder (LAWS) instrument on a 5-day forecast using the Florida State University (FSU) primitive equation multilevel spectral global circulation model. This proposed Earth Observing System satelliteborne instrument is a CO2 Doppler lidar wind sounding system. The instrument's requirement for usable measurements is that clouds or high concentrations of tropospheric aerosols must exist within the sample volume. Two different orbits, a 55° inclined and a 98° sun synchronous, were examined by adding simulated LAWS wind profiles into a global four-dimensional data assimilation system and comparing the analyses and forecasts to a control experiment. Also, two different sets of simulations were examined for the 55° inclined orbit. The first set followed the assumption of other previous Doppler lidar wind sounding OSSES; a global concentration of aerosols exists such that...