All-Sky Microwave Radiance Assimilation in NCEP’s GSI Analysis System

AbstractThe capability of all-sky microwave radiance assimilation in the Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation (GSI) analysis system has been developed at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP). This development effort required the adaptation of quality control, observation error assignment, bias correction, and background error covariance to all-sky conditions within the ensemble–variational (EnVar) framework. The assimilation of cloudy radiances from the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-A (AMSU-A) microwave radiometer for ocean fields of view (FOVs) is the primary emphasis of this study.In the original operational hybrid 3D EnVar Global Forecast System (GFS), the clear-sky approach for radiance data assimilation is applied. Changes to data thinning and quality control have allowed all-sky satellite radiances to be assimilated in the GSI. Along with the symmetric observation error assignment, additional situation-dependent observation error inflation is employed for all-sky conditions. Mo...