Impact of airborne Doppler wind lidar profiles on numerical simulations of a tropical cyclone

Abstract

During the THORPEX Pacific Asian Regional Campaign (TPARC) field experiment in 2008, an airborne Doppler wind lidar (DWL) was onboard the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory's P‐3 research flight. It was the first time the DWL was used for a tropical cyclone mission. This paper presents the first results demonstrating the impact of airborne DWL measurements on the numerical simulation of Typhoon Nuri (2008) in its formation phase. With an advanced research version of the weather research and forecasting (WRF) model and its data assimilation systems, numerical results show the DWL data have a positive impact on numerical simulations of Typhoon Nuri in terms of its formation, track and intensity. Dropsondes released in the areas where the DWL was operating show good agreement for measured winds. Compared with the three‐dimensional variational method, a four‐dimensional variational data assimilation system is deemed to be more promising for assimilating the DWL data.