Impact of Assimilating FY-3D MWTS-2 Upper Air Sounding Data on Forecasting Typhoon Lekima (2019)

Abstract

In this study, the Fengyun-3D (FY-3D) clear-sky microwave temperature sounder-2 (MWTS-2) radiances were directly assimilated in the regional mesoscale Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model using the Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation (GSI) data assimilation system. The assimilation experiments were conducted to compare the track errors of typhoon Lekima from uses of the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-A (AMSU-A) radiances (EXP_AD) with those from FY-3D MWTS-2 upper-air sounding data at channels 5–7 (EXP_AMD). The clear-sky mean bias-corrected observation-minus-background (O-B) values of FY-3D MWTS-2 channels 5, 6, and 7 are 0.27, 0.10 and 0.57 K, respectively, which are smaller than those without bias corrections. Compared with the control experiment, which was the forecast of the WRF model without use of satellite data, the assimilation of satellite radiances can improve the forecast performance and reduce the mean track error by 8.7% (~18.4 km) and 30% (~58.6 km) beyond 36 h through the EXP_AD and EXP_AMD, respectively. The direction of simulated steering flow changed from southwest in the EXP_AD to southeast in the EXP_AMD, which can be pivotal to forecasting the landfall of typhoon Lekima (2019) three days in advance. Assimilation of MWTS-2 upper-troposphere channels 5–7 has great potential to improve the track forecasts for typhoon Lekima.