Development of the new ensemble weather prediction system at the Hydrometcentre of Russia

Abstract

The new ensemble weather prediction system developed at Hydrometcenter of Russia is presented. It is based on the global atmospheric model with the resolution of 0.9×0.72 degrees in longitude and latitude, respectively, 96 vertical levels, and the Local Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter (LETKF) algorithm implemented by the authors. The key feature of this system is the centering of the initial data ensemble onto the operational analysis of the Hydrometcenter of Russia, which allows to take into account some satellite observations not assimilated in LETKF. Some improvements in assimilating radiosounding data has increased the accuracy of short range weather forecasts. The first results of ensemble medium-range forecasts are presented. Now this ensemble prediction system is ready for a quasi-operational use.