Abstract
The global navigation satellite system (GNSS) radio occultation (RO) technique is an atmospheric sounding technique that originated in the 1990s. The data provided by this approach are playing a consistently significant role in atmospheric research and related applications. This paper mainly summarizes the applications of RO to numerical weather prediction (NWP) generally and specifically for tropical cyclone (TC) forecast and outlines the prospects of the RO technique. With advantages such as high precision and accuracy, high vertical resolution, full-time and all-weather, and global coverage, RO data have made a remarkable contribution to NWP and TC forecasts. While accounting for only 7% of the total observations in European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts’ (ECMWF’s) assimilation system, RO has the fourth-largest impact on NWP. The greater the amount of RO data, the better the forecast of NWP. In cases of TC forecasts, assimilating RO data from heights below 6 km and from the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) region contributes to the forecasting accuracy of the track and intensity of TCs in different stages. A statistical analysis showed that assimilating RO data can help restore the critical characteristics of TCs, such as the location and intensity of the eye, eyewall, and rain bands. Moreover, a non-local excess phase assimilation operator can be employed to optimize the assimilation results. With denser RO profiles expected in the future, the accuracy of TC forecast can be further improved. Finally, future trends in RO are discussed, including advanced features, such as polarimetric RO, and RO strategies to increase the number of soundings, such as the use of a cube satellite constellation.
Highlights
National Space Science Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences (NSSC/CAS), Beijing 100190, China; Beijing Key Laboratory of Space Environment Exploration, Beijing 100190, China
As an advanced atmospheric sounding technique, radio occultation (RO) effectively complements other conventional observations owing to its unique advantages
We mainly reviewed the applications of RO observations in numerical weather prediction (NWP)
Summary
The radio occultation (RO) measurement technique can be traced back to the mid-20th century, when Mars atmosphere detection missions, namely Mariner 3 and 4, were launched by scientists from. Stanford and Jet Propulsion Laboratory [1]. With the deployment of a GPS constellation, it has been found that the RO technique could be applied to Earth [2].
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