Convective downdraft motions and related outflow wind considered as an eventual source of potential damage which can be more severe in the aviation sector. A great variety of atmospheric environments can produce these downdraft motions. These events are not easily detectable using conventional weather radar or wind shear alert systems, while Doppler radars are useful for identifying these Downbursts. In order to identify the situations that can cause these downdraft events different diagnostic tools are designed. Recently launched Indian satellite INSAT-3D, with atmospheric sounder and imager on board, is capable of identifying regions of downburst occurrence and can help in monitoring them in real time. Some Downburst events reported over different parts of India, during January-April period is investigated using Microburst Wind Speed Potential Index (MWPI) and thermodynamic characteristics derived from the NCMRWF GFS (NGFS) model. An attempt is made to make a short range prediction of these events using MWPI computed from NGFS model forecasts. The results are validated with in-situ observations and also by employing INSAT-3D data and it is shown that the method has a reasonable success. All the investigated downdraft events are associated with the hybrid Microburst environment.
Megha-Tropiques (MT) is an Indo-French Joint Satellite Mission, launched on 12 October 2011. MT-SAPHIR is a sounding instrument with 6 channels near the absorption band of water vapor at 183 GHz, for studying the water cycle and energy exchanges in the tropics. The main objective of this mission is to understand the life cycle of convective systems that influence the tropical weather and climate and their role in associated energy and moisture budget of the atmosphere in tropical regions. India also has a prestigious space programme and has launched the INSAT-3D satellite on 26 July 2013 which has an atmospheric sounder for the first time along with improved VHRR imager. NCMRWF (National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting) is regularly receiving these new datasets and also making changes to its Global Data Assimilation Forecasting (GDAF) system from time-to-time to assimilate these new datasets. A well planned strategy involving various steps such as monitoring of data quality, development of observation operator and quality control procedures, and finally then studying its impact on forecasts is developed to include new observations in global data analysis system. By employing this strategy observations having positive impact on forecast quality such as MT-SAPHIR, and INSAT-3D Clear Sky Radiance (CSR) products are identified and being assimilated in the Global Data Assimilation and Forecasting (GDAF) system.
Impact of SAPHIR radiance assimilation on the simulation of tropical cyclones over Indian region has been investigated using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. Three cyclones that formed over Bay of Bengal have been considered in the present study. Assimilation methodology used here is the three dimensional variational (3DVar) scheme within the WRF model. With the initial and boundary conditions from Global Forecasting System (GFS) analyses from the National Centres for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), a control run (CTRL) without assimilation of any data and a 3DVar run with the assimilation of SAPHIR radiance have been performed. Both model simulations have been compared with the observations from India Meteorological Department (IMD), Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM), and analysis fields from GFS. Detailed analysis reveals that, the SAPHIR radiance assimilation has led to significant improvement in the simulation of all the three cyclones in terms of cyclone track, intensity, accumulated rainfall. The simulation of warm core structure and relative vorticity profile of each cyclone by 3DVar run are found to be more closer to GFS analyses, when compared with the CTRL run.
The availability of high resolution temperature and water vapor data is important for the study of mesoscale scale weather phenomena. As, Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), Cross-Track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) and European Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) provide high resolution atmospheric profiles by measuring radiations in many thousands of different channels. The AIRS, on the EOS-Aqua polar-orbiting satellite, was the first of a new generation of meteorological advanced sounders able to provide hyper- spectral data for operational and research use. The CrIS is a Fourier Transform Michelson interferometer instrument launched on board the Suomi National Polar- Orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) satellite on 28 October 2011. CrIS is a major step forward in the U.S. operational infrared (IR) sounding capability previously provided by the High-resolution Infrared Spectrometer (HIRS). The IASI is the most advanced instrument carried on the MetOp satellite on 19 October 2006. As a result, demonstration of the benefit of hyper-spectral data on Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) has been a high priority. This work focuses on the assessment of the potential values of satellite hyper-spectral radiance data in the NGFS (National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting-Global Forecast System). An Observing System Experiments (OSEs) has been conducted to examine the impact of hyper-spectral radiances and detail results are presented.
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