Assimilation of GPS RO Refractivity Data and Its Impact on Simulations of Trade Wind Inversion and a Winter Cold Front

Abstract

Assimilation of Global Positioning System (GPS) Radio Occultation (RO) refractivity based on WRF-3DVAR is applied to numerical weather predictions (NWP) in Hawaii, where limited conventional observations and poor representation of local circulations in global analysis constrain the quality of numerical weather predictions. For a summer trade wind case, with GPS RO refractivity assimilated, the trade wind inversion is better predicted. For a winter cold front case, the propagation of the cold front is also better simulated when GPS RO refractivity is assimilated. Furthermore, the moist tongue associated with the cold front is better defined and the vertical profiles of temperature and moisture are largely improved when compared to the model run without GPS RO assimilation.