Impact of Enhanced Atmospheric Motion Vectors on HWRF Hurricane Analyses and Forecasts with Different Data Assimilation Configurations

AbstractThe impacts of enhanced satellite-derived atmospheric motion vectors (AMVs) on the numerical prediction of intensity changes during Hurricanes Gonzalo (2014) and Joaquin (2015) are examined. Enhanced AMVs benefit from special data processing strategies and are examined for impact on model forecasts via assimilation experiments by employing the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) operational Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting (HWRF) model using a gridpoint statistical interpolation (GSI)-based ensemble-variational hybrid system. Two different data assimilation (DA) configurations, one with and one without the use of vortex initialization (VI) are compared.It is found that the assimilation of enhanced AMVs can improve the HWRF track and intensity forecasts of Gonzalo and Joaquin during their intensity change phases. The degree of data impact depends on the DA configuration used. Overall, assimilation of enhanced AMVs in the innermost domain (e.g., storm inner-core region and...