HR: 11:05h
AN: H41H-04    [PDF]
TI: On the Operational use of Satellite Remote Sensing of Land Surface Properties in Numerical Weather Prediction
AU: * Drusch, M
EM: dar@ecmwf.int
AF: European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts, Shinfield Park, Reading, RG2 9AX United Kingdom
AU: Seuffert, G
EM: pas@ecmwf.int
AF: European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts, Shinfield Park, Reading, RG2 9AX United Kingdom
AU: Viterbo, P
EM: pav@ecmwf.int
AF: European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts, Shinfield Park, Reading, RG2 9AX United Kingdom
AB: Currently, approx. 1.000.000 satellite observations are assimilated into ECMWF's (European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts) operational Integrated Forecast System within every 12 hour analysis cycle. None of these observations is used by the land surface module or refers to a land surface parameter. In this presentation, an overview of the pre-operational activities regarding the assimilation of satellite data in the land surface analysis is given. The first part of the presentation will address the snow analysis, which has recently been revised by using the satellite based NOAA NESDIS snow cover product. A comparison with independently derived MODIS snow cover shows a significant improvement of the analysis product. The impact of this revison on the weather forecast will be demonstrated. The second part of the presentation comprises the assimilation of soil moisture. A comparison between operational soil moisture products and remotely sensed data based on the Southern Great Plains 99 experiment demonstrates the potential of remotely sensed data. The impact of remotely sensed soil moisture is shown in assimilation experiments. When used in synergy with screen-level parameters, which are currently used in ECMWFs soil moisture analysis system, L-band microwave brightness temperatures are leading to an improved description of the land surface state, especially under conditions characterized by erroneous rainfall forcing data.
DE: 1863 Snow and ice (1827)
DE: 1866 Soil moisture
DE: 3337 Numerical modeling and data assimilation
DE: 3360 Remote sensing
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting