In-situ reportPrecipitationSurface Temperature and humidityTemperature and humidity profilesAMDARGPS ZTDLidarBertrand Calpini with input from, Roger Saunders, Richard Assmann, Stewart Taylor, Gemma Bennitt

1. Rainfall Intensity

• Final report on the WMO CIMO webpage

Rain security network in the Alps / 2010

Rain security network in the Alps / 2013

2. Temperature and RH

Field Intercomparison of Thermometer Screens/Shields and Humidity Measuring

Instruments (17*2 screens)

VEIG

LBOM

LLANLCOC

SCAE

SDAV

SSOCSYOUVDAV

VROT

VTHY VYOU

Field Intercomparison of Thermometer Screens/Shields and Humidity Measuring

Instruments

- 1 .5

- 1

- 0 .5

0

0 .5

1

1 .5

ATH

I1AT

HI2

LBO

MLC

AS

LLAN

1LL

AN2

LSO

CSD

AV1

SDAV

2SS

OC1

SSO

C2SV

AI1

SVAI

2SW

IN1

SWIN

2SY

OU

1SY

OU

2

VDAV

1VD

AV2

VEIG

11VE

IG12

VEIG

21VF

IS1

VFIS

2VR

OT1

VTH

Y1VT

HY2

VYO

U1

VYO

U2

Tem

pera

ture

diff

eren

ces

with

VE

IG22

(°C)

3292

06

5031

24

5031

24

5031

24

5031

24

5031

24

2397

93

5031

24

5031

24

5031

24

5031

24

5031

24

4995

31

1120

4

4457

0

N um ber o f cases

Field Intercomparison of Thermometer Screens/Shields and Humidity Measuring

Instruments

- 1 8 0

-1 5 0

-1 2 0

-9 0

-6 0

-3 0

0

3 0

6 0

9 0

1 20

1 50

1 80

ATH

I1AT

HI2

LBO

M

LCAS

LLAN

1

LLAN

2LS

OC

SDAV

1

SDAV

2SS

OC1

SSO

C2

SVAI

1SV

AI2

SWIN

1SW

IN2

SYO

U1

SYO

U2

VDAV

1

VDAV

2VE

IG11

VEIG

12

VEIG

21VF

IS1

VFIS

2

VRO

T1VT

HY1

VTH

Y2VY

OU

1VY

OU

2

Dai

ly T

x tim

e di

ffere

nces

with

VE

IG22

(min

utes

)

91 87 331

331

331

331

331

331

331

331

331

280

266

331

331

331

331

331

331

331

331

254

331

331

183

38 42 331

331

N um ber o f cases

Differences in the time of occurrence of daily maximum temperatures

Gardaia Results• Even some low-cost screen appear with very good

performance• Consequences for climate services:

– Maximum daily temperature delay: up to 3hrs – Maximum temperature error: up to 1.5deg

• Final report on the WMO CIMO webpage

8th WMO International Radiosonde Comparison.Yangjiang, Guangdong, China

12 July – 3 August 2010

Participants: 11 manufacturers from

China, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, South Africa, Switzerland, USA

3. Radiosonde

Tropical/subtropical moist conditions

Tropopause & 16kmTemperature >> -90deg

Temperature

Geopotential Height

Rel Humidity

Yangjiang Results• Unprecedented performances achieved with QRS• No pressure sensor needed anymore for GPS radiosonde

with a direct impact on lowering the cost of radiosonde• Intercomparison results used to facilitate selection of

systems for national purposes, minimizing additional performance testing on a national level (WTO procedures).

• Recommendations on vendors to improve their operational radiosonde

>>> Final report on the WMO CIMO webpage

Met Office MODEM vs Vaisala

What is GRUAN?

GCOS Reference Upper Air NetworkNetwork for ground-based reference observations for climate in the

free atmosphere in the frame of GCOSInitially 15 stations, envisaged to be a network of 30-40 sites across

the globe

See www.gruan.org for more detail

GRUAN goals

Maintain observations over several decades for accurately estimating climate variability and change

Focus on characterizing observational biases, including complete estimates of measurement uncertainty

Ensure traceability of measurements by comprehensive metadata collection and documentation

Ensure long-term stability by managing instrumental changes

Tie measurements to SI units or internationally accepted standards

Measure a large suite of co-related climate variables with deliberate measurement redundancy

Priority 1: Water vapor, temperature, (pressure and wind)

Priority 2: Ozone, clouds, …

Monitoring with GPS-RO

Very small bias

Sonde’s understimatehumidity

Vaisala RS92: (COSMIC - RS92)/RS92

SIPPICAN (USA):(COSMIC – SIPP)/SIPP

Co-located COSMIC

and radiosonde

refractivity (3 hrs, 300 km)

AMDAR Coverage 13th June 11

E-AMDAR 13th June

E-AMDAR Europe 13th June

26

E-AMDAR: Network Developments 1.• 1st Nov 2010 - EZY fleets providing data over UK domain and selected European airports.• Software installed on BAW A319 (LCY – SNN – JFK).But when a volcano erupts coverage

is reduced!

27

E-AMDAR: WVSS Programme 1.

28

US (NOAA): WVSS Programme 1.

Some stats

• AMDAR reports from Alaskan Airlines received from 25 March 2011 an extra 110 aircraft reporting ~10% increase in AMDAR reports globally

• 230 dropsonde reports over North Pacific during March 2011 – good quality

• 57% reduction of Canadian AMDARs over 2 years, but levelled-off recently

• New Canadian ADS data received from 4 March 2011 over western North Atlantic

Ground-based GPSObservations available from E-GVAP

http://egvap.dmi.dk

Ground-based GPS

NAE and UK models:

• ~18 000 zenith total delay (ZTD) observations assimilated into NAE model per day, ~1400 in UK models.

• Recent study focusing on heavy rainfall events with UK4 model showed 10.9% increase in ETS for 6 hour precip accumulation when ZTDs assimilated.

Global model:

• Trials of assimilating ZTD into global NWP model underway

• Met Office and Czech republic now produce global near real-time ZTD observations (not yet available on GTS)

Testbeds and Leadcenters

Met office Observation Monitoring – some notable events 2010/11

• Volcanic ash episode in April 2010: few AMDARs, but more TEMPs - looked for changes in temperature bias at TEMP stations (as biased AMDARs removed) - no significant changes seen

• Loss of ~40% Canadian sonde winds due to demise of Loran-C on 1/08/10 - impact minimised by CMC producing winds at either 00Z or 12Z at nearby stations

• Antarctic Concordiasi campaign Sep-Nov 2010 - 560 dropsondes received and assimilated at the Met Office - >50000 balloon winds + temps received/assimilated from 19 gondola balloons

• AMDAR data over UK increased by 65% on 1/11/10 due to EasyJet data (for a 6-month trial period) - quality similar to other E-AMDAR data

• E-AMDAR processing problems 28-29 Nov 2010 - few AMDARs on 28 Nov, but old data queued & sent on 29 Nov, resulting in rms o-b vector wind 50% higher (10% for assim’d data) than usual in 12UTC run & probable degradation in forecast

• 2 Greenland stations’ TEMP reports corrupted since January 2011 - - data missing 700-100hPa from stations 04220 & 04270 at Met Office (& MeteoFrance) due to coding errors in reports

• Winds from 102 European wind profilers/weather radars now assimilated at Met Office - Norwegian WRWP wind quality improved in spring 2010, but Spanish WRWP quality still poor (no Finnish winds assimilated 2 Nov – 8 Dec 2010, as profiles received in reverse height order)

Issues for NWP• Transition to BUFR for radiosondes provide new opportunities• Global GPS total zenith delay• In-situ soil moisture and temp• Common format for precip radar data•To improve estimates of solid precipitation and develop guidance on the accuracy and temporal resolution of solid precipitation parameters• New observations needed for mesoscale

There is increasing evidence based upon results from A-TREC, TPARC, AMMA (in the form of OSEs, adjoint-based observation impact studies, and analysis uncertainty estimates) to recommend, if feasible, increases in observations from:

• Commercial aircraft over the N. Pacific, N. Atlantic, and the S. Hemisphere in general.

• Additional soundings from certain coastal radiosondes, including those in eastern Siberia, and perhaps selected stations in polar regions, Africa, and South America.  

to improve NWP forecasts in the 2-5 day timeframe.

DAOS-WG statement on need for DAOS-WG statement on need for additional in-situ observationsadditional in-situ observations