Satellite radiance data assimilation for rainfall prediction in Java Region

Abstract

This study examined the influence of satellite radiance data assimilation for predicting two days of heavy rainfall in the Java region. The first case occurred from 22 to 23 on January 2015 while the second case occurred from 1 to 2 on February 2015. The analysis examined before and after data assimilation in the two cases study. The Global Forecast System (GFS) data were used as initial condition which was assimilated with several data such as surface observation data, radiance data from AMSUA sensor, radiance data from HIRS sensor, and radiance data from MHS sensor. Weather Research and Forecasting Data Assimilation (WRFDA) is a tool which is used in this study for assimilating process with Three Dimensional Variation (3D-Var) method. The Quantitative Precipitation Forecast (QPF) skill was used to evaluate influence data assimilation for rainfall prediction. The result of the study obtained different rainfall prediction with different data assimilation. In general, the surface observation data assimilation has lower QPF skill than the satellite radiance data assimilation. Even thought radiance data assimilation has slightly contribution on rainfall prediction, but it gave better accuracy on rainfall prediction for two heavy rainfall cases.