Application of an Adiabatic WRF Adjoint to the Investigation of the May 2004 McMurdo, Antarctica, Severe Wind Event

Abstract

The tangent linear and adjoint of an adiabatic version of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model with its Advanced Research WRF (ARW) dynamic core have been developed. The source-to-source automatic differentiation tool [i.e., the Transformation of Algorithm (TAF) in FORTRAN] was used in the development. Tangent linear and adjoint checks of the developed adiabatic WRF adjoint modeling system (WAMS) were conducted, and all necessary correctness verification procedures were passed. As the first application, the adiabatic WAMS was used to study the adjoint sensitivity of a severe windstorm in Antarctica. Linearity tests indicated that an adjoint-based sensitivity study with the Antarctic Mesoscale Prediction System (AMPS) 90-km domain configuration for the windstorm is valid up to 24 h. The adjoint-based sensitivity calculation with adiabatic WAMS identified sensitive regions for the improvement of the 24-h forecast of the windstorm. It is indicated that the windstorm forecast largely relies on the model initial conditions in the area from the south part of the Trans-Antarctic Mountains to West Antarctica and between the Ross Ice Shelf and the South Pole. Based on the sensitivity analysis, the southerly or southeasterly wind at lower levels in the sensitivity region should be larger, the cyclone should be stronger, and the atmospheric stratification should be more stable over the north slope of the Trans-Antarctic Mountain to the Ross Ice Shelf, than the AMPS analyses. By constructing pseudo-observations in the sensitivity region using the gradient information of forecast windstorm intensity around McMurdo, the model initial conditions are revised with the WRF three-dimensional variational data assimilation, which leads to significant improvement in the prediction of the windstorm. An adjoint sensitivity study is an efficient way to identify sensitivity regions in order to collect more observations in the region for better forecasts in a specific aspect of interest.