Print Email Facebook Twitter Comparison of co-located independent ground-based middle atmospheric wind and temperature measurements with numerical weather prediction models Title Comparison of co-located independent ground-based middle atmospheric wind and temperature measurements with numerical weather prediction models Author Le Pichon, A. Assink, J.D. Heinrich, P. Blanc, E. Charlton-Perez, A. Lee, C.F. Keckhut, P. Hauchecorne, A. Rufenacht, R. Kampfer, N. Drob, D.P. Smets, P.S.M. Evers, L.G. Ceranna, L. Pilger, C. Ross, O. Claud, C. Faculty Civil Engineering and Geosciences Department Geoscience & Engineering Date 2015-07-23 Abstract High-resolution, ground-based and independent observations including co-located wind radiometer, lidar stations, and infrasound instruments are used to evaluate the accuracy of general circulation models and data-constrained assimilation systems in the middle atmosphere at northern hemisphere midlatitudes. Systematic comparisons between observations, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) operational analyses including the recent Integrated Forecast System cycles 38r1 and 38r2, the NASA’s Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) reanalyses, and the free-running climate Max Planck Institute–Earth System Model–Low Resolution (MPI-ESM-LR) are carried out in both temporal and spectral dom ains. We ?nd that ECMWF and MERRA are broadly consistent with lidar and wind radiometer measurements up to ~40 km. For both temperature and horizontal wind components, deviations increase with altitude as the assimilated observations become sparser. Between 40 and 60 km altitude, the standard deviation of the mean difference exceeds 5 K for the temperature and 20 m/s for the zonal wind. The largest deviations are observed in winter when the variability from large-scale planetary waves dominates. Between lidar data and MPI-ESM-LR, there is an overall agreement in spectral amplitude down to 15–20 days. At shorter time scales, the variability is lacking in the model by ~10 dB. Infrasound observations indicate a general good agreement with ECWMF wind and temperature products. As such, this study demonstrates the potential of the infrastructure of the Atmospheric Dynamics Research Infrastructure in Europe project that integrates various measurements and provides a quantitative understanding of stratosphere-troposphere dynamical coupling for numerical weather prediction applications. To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:731d01b9-6fda-4b40-acf3-6523be6744bf Embargo date 2016-01-23 ISSN 0148-0227 Source Journal of Geophysical Research, 120 (16), 2015 Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights (c) 2015 American Geophysical Union Files HTM epdf.htm 4.48 KB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:731d01b9-6fda-4b40-acf3-6523be6744bf/datastream/OBJ/view