Improved tropical cyclone forecasts over north Indian Ocean with direct assimilation of AMSU-A radiances

The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF-ARW) model and its three-dimensional variational data assimilation (3D-Var) system are used to investigate the impact of the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-A (AMSU-A) radiances on the prediction of Indian Ocean tropical cyclones. Three tropical cyclones are selected for this study: cyclone Mala (April 2006; Bay of Bengal), cyclone Gonu (June 2007; Arabian Sea), and cyclone Sidr (November 2007; Bay of Bengal). For each case, observing system experiments are designed, by producing two sets of analyses from which forecasts are initialized. Both sets of analyses contain all conventional and satellite observations operationally used, including, but not limited to, Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) surface winds, Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) surface winds, Meteosat-derived atmospheric motion vectors (AMVs), and differ only in the exclusion (CNT) or inclusion (EXP) of AMSU-A radiances. Results show that the assimilation of AMSU-A radiances changes the large-scale thermodynamic structure of the atmosphere, and also produce a stronger warm core. These changes cause large forecast track improvements. In particular, without AMSU-A assimilation, most forecasts do not produce landfall. On the contrary, the forecasts initialized from improved EXP analyses in which AMSU-A data are included produce realistic landfall. In addition, intensity forecast is also improved. Even if the analyzed cyclone intensity is not affected by the assimilation of AMSU-A radiances, the predicted intensity improves substantially because of the development of warm cores which, through creation of stronger gradients, helps the model in producing intense low centre pressure.