A Four-Season Impact Study of Rawinsonde, GOES, and POES Data in the Eta Data Assimilation System. Part I: The Total Contribution

Abstract The impact of in situ rawinsonde (raob) data, remotely sensed Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES), and Polar Operational Environmental Satellite (POES) data routinely used in NCEP’s Eta Data Assimilation/Forecast System (EDAS) is studied for extended-length time periods during four seasons. The work described in this paper is relevant for users of the Eta Model trying to compare and contrast the overall forecast impact of traditional, mostly land-based rawinsonde data with remotely sensed data that are available domainwide. The case studies chosen consist of 15-day periods during fall 2001, winter 2001/02, spring 2002, and summer 2002. During these periods, a 32-km/60-layer November 2001 version of the EDAS is run four times at both 0000 and 1200 UTC. The four runs include a control run, which utilizes all data types routinely used in the EDAS, and three experimental runs in which either all rawinsonde, GOES, or POES data are denied. Differences between the experimental and c...