Towards the operational use of Doppler radar radial winds in HIRLAM

Abstract

This article discusses the pre-operational development for data assimilation of radial wind observations in the High Resolution Limited Area Model (HIRLAM) at the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI). The HIRLAM variational data assimilation system includes all the needed tools for exploitation of radial wind observations. A measurement task designed especially for the radial wind data assimilation purposes has been implemented to the FMI radar network. Observation quality monitoring indicates that the main error sources for the radial wind observations are ground clutter and velocity ambiguity. The HIRLAM quality control procedures are able to detect and reject most of these erroneous observations. Impact studies show encouraging results. Surface verification indicates that the use of radar wind observations has a positive impact on 10 m wind forecasts. Precipitation forecasts are also slightly improved. Upper air verification shows positive impact on wind and temperature forecasts at the 925–700 hPa levels.