Abstract
Three modern atmospheric reanalyses with different input observation data (NOAA–CIRES 20th Century Reanalysis (20CR), Japanese 55-year Reanalysis (JRA-55), and JRA-55C) were compared against the independent radiosonde observations over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) and the western Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau (YGP) from the China-Japan Meteorological Disaster Reduction Cooperation (JICA/Tibet) Center Project in the summer of 2018 to investigate the effects of the assimilation of the observation data on the quality and accuracy of the reanalyses in the troposphere. The results indicate that the mean biases and mean root-mean-square errors of horizontal wind, temperature, and specific humidity significantly decreased when comparing the 20CR reanalysis (assimilating only surface pressure) to the JRA-55C (assimilating conventional surface and upper-air observations) and the JRA-55 (assimilating conventional and satellite observations), and the bias spreads of these aboveground variables in JRA-55C and JRA-55 were cut to almost half of those observed in 20CR. However, the mean biases and uncertainties varied little from JRA-55C to JRA-55. This means that the assimilation of conventional observation data plays a vital role in the quality of reanalyses for the troposphere over these data-sparse plateaus. It was also found that the temperature and specific humidity near the ground over TP showed larger mean biases and bias spans than those over YGP, likely due to the sparser surface observation over TP.
Highlights
Accepted: 27 December 2020The Tibetan Plateau (TP), the largest and highest plateau on earth, plays an essential role in the regional and even the global climate [1,2,3,4,5,6]
They note that the Japanese 55-year Reanalysis (JRA-55) [26], a global atmospheric reanalysis with a ~55 km resolution led by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), showed relatively better quality than other reanalyses in 1998 because the soundings collected in the field campaign were assimilated into the JRA reanalysis
Three reanalysis datasets—consisting of 20th Century Reanalysis (20CR), JRA-55, and JRA-55C—are intercomThree reanalysis datasets—consisting of 20CR, JRA-55, and JRA-55C—are intercompared in this study. 20CR [26] is a reanalysis project jointly conducted by the National pared in this study. 20CR [26] is a reanalysis project jointly conducted by the National
Summary
The Tibetan Plateau (TP), the largest and highest plateau on earth, plays an essential role in the regional and even the global climate [1,2,3,4,5,6]. 2015–2016) mainly due to the huge increase in the amount and quality of input satellite observations They note that the Japanese 55-year Reanalysis (JRA-55) [26], a global atmospheric reanalysis with a ~55 km resolution led by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), showed relatively better quality than other reanalyses in 1998 because the soundings collected in the field campaign were assimilated into the JRA reanalysis. This dataset can be used to evaluate the sensitivity of reanalyses over TP and YGP according to different input observation sets For this study, these different sets consist of (a) only surface pressures with the 20CR reanalysis, (b) only conventional observations with the JRA-55 reanalysis, and (c) both conventional and satellite data with JRA-55C.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
