Assimilation with an ensemble Kalman filter of synthetic radial wind data in anisotropic turbulence: Perfect model experiments

The ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) developed at the Meteorological Research Branch of Canada is used in the context of synthetic radial wind data assimilation at the mesoscale. A dry Boussinesq model with periodic boundary conditions is employed to provide a control run, as well as two ensembles of first guesses. Synthetic data, which are interpolated from the control run, are assimilated and simulate Doppler radar wind measurements. Nine "radars" with a range of 120 km are placed evenly on the horizontal 1000 km X 1000 km domain. These radars measure the radial wind with assumed Gaussian error statistics at each grid point within their range provided that there is sufficient upward motion (a proxy for precipitation). These data of radial winds are assimilated every 30 min and the assimilation period extends over 4 days. Results show that the EnKF technique with 2 X 50 members performed well in terms of reducing the analysis error for horizontal winds and temperature (even though temperature is not an observed variable) over a period of 4 days. However the analyzed vertical velocity shows an initial degradation. During the first 2 days of the assimilation period, the analysis error of the vertical velocity is greater when assimilating radar observations than when scoring forecasts initialized at t = 0 without assimilating any data. The type of assimilated data as well as the localization of the impact of the observations is thought to be the cause of this degradation of the analyzed vertical velocity. External gravity modes are present in the increments when localization is performed. This degradation can be eliminated by filtering the external gravity modes of the analysis increments. A similar set of experiments is realized in which the model dissipation coefficient is reduced by a factor of 10. This shows the level of sensitivity of the results to the kinetic energy power spectrum. and that the quality of the analyzed vertical wind is worse when dissipation is small.