Viewing posts from November, 2000
Implementation of 3DVAR for the Met Office Stratospheric Analyses ================================================================= The Middle Atmospheric Group at the Met Office has "been working on the development of a 3D variational (3DVAR) data assimilation system to replace the Analysis Correction (AC) data assimilation system. The stratospheric analyses were produced by a research data assimilation from October 1991, and from October 1995 the research system was replaced by a similar system which was run as part of the operational suite. " The new 3DVAR assimilation went operational on 14th November this year. Output from the new system is now available at the BADC for scientific research, in the same format as output from the current system. "The major changes are: * The introduction of the 3D variational data assimilation scheme. This is described by the recent paper by Lorenc et al, 2000 (Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 126, 2992-3012). * The assimilation of radiances, rather than temperature retrievals, from polar orbiter satellites. * The use of a new model configuration, with 40 (rather than 42) levels; this is closer to what is used in the standard global forecast model. Preliminary trials of the new data assimilation system have indicated that the analysed fields in the troposphere and lower stratosphere are similar to those from the current system. Objective forecast verification scores have indicated significant benefit from the change from AC (with assimilation of retrievals) to the use of 3DVAR (with radiance assimilation). In the upper stratosphere the changes are more marked: the stratopause is typically 10 K warmer than in the current system, with the uppermost levels cooler. These latter changes are are largely a reversal of biases that were introduced inadvertently in January 1999 when the ozone climatology file was changed incorrectly." A new filename convention has been adopted to differentiate the output files from the new 3DVAR assimilation scheme and the data files from the previous AC data assimilation system. Hence ppassm_operf_y.._m.._d.._h...pp becomes ppassm_operg_y.._m.._d.._h...pp At the BADC, the new data files can be found in the current year assimilated data directory: /badc/ukmo-assim/data/standard/2000/ The Assimilated data documentation on the BADC Web pages will be updated shortly. BADC Support 15th November 2000Read more
ACSOE data monthly release ========================== Some data archived in the framework of the ACSOE project have been released to the public domain: * data from the FREETEX campaign of 1996 …Read more