Relevance of climatological background error statistics for mesoscale data assimilation

The relevance of climatological background error statistics for mesoscale data assimilation has been investigated with regard to basic assumptions and also with regard to the ensemble generation techniques that are applied to derive the statistics. It is found that background error statistics derive...

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Main Authors: Jelena Bojarova, Nils Gustafsson
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Stockholm University Press 2019-01-01
Series:Tellus: Series A, Dynamic Meteorology and Oceanography
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/16000870.2019.1615168
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author Jelena Bojarova
Nils Gustafsson
author_facet Jelena Bojarova
Nils Gustafsson
author_sort Jelena Bojarova
collection DOAJ
description The relevance of climatological background error statistics for mesoscale data assimilation has been investigated with regard to basic assumptions and also with regard to the ensemble generation techniques that are applied to derive the statistics. It is found that background error statistics derived by simulation through Ensemble Data Assimilation are more realistic than the corresponding statistics derived by downscaling from larger scale ensemble data. In case perturbation of observations is used to inject a spread into the ensemble, and the ensemble is integrated over a few hours only, it was found that the derived structure functions may be contaminated by the geometry of the observing network. The effects of the assumptions of stationarity, homogeneity and isotropy, that are generally applied in the generation of background error statistics, and the implications of the background error covariance model have also been illustrated. Spatial covariances derived under these assumptions were contrasted against spatial covariances obtained by ensemble averaging only, preserving the signals from forecast errors of the day. This indicates that it is likely to be favourable to apply data assimilation with ensemble background error statistics obtained from ensemble averaging, like in ensemble Kalman filters or in hybrids between variational and ensemble data assimilation techniques.
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spelling doaj.art-99f05a3d79464ad7acfe7608379c397f2022-12-22T02:27:03ZengStockholm University PressTellus: Series A, Dynamic Meteorology and Oceanography1600-08702019-01-0171110.1080/16000870.2019.16151681615168Relevance of climatological background error statistics for mesoscale data assimilationJelena Bojarova0Nils Gustafsson1Research Department, Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological InstituteResearch Department, Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological InstituteThe relevance of climatological background error statistics for mesoscale data assimilation has been investigated with regard to basic assumptions and also with regard to the ensemble generation techniques that are applied to derive the statistics. It is found that background error statistics derived by simulation through Ensemble Data Assimilation are more realistic than the corresponding statistics derived by downscaling from larger scale ensemble data. In case perturbation of observations is used to inject a spread into the ensemble, and the ensemble is integrated over a few hours only, it was found that the derived structure functions may be contaminated by the geometry of the observing network. The effects of the assumptions of stationarity, homogeneity and isotropy, that are generally applied in the generation of background error statistics, and the implications of the background error covariance model have also been illustrated. Spatial covariances derived under these assumptions were contrasted against spatial covariances obtained by ensemble averaging only, preserving the signals from forecast errors of the day. This indicates that it is likely to be favourable to apply data assimilation with ensemble background error statistics obtained from ensemble averaging, like in ensemble Kalman filters or in hybrids between variational and ensemble data assimilation techniques.http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/16000870.2019.1615168mesoscale data assimilationbackground error covariance modelensemble prediction systemclimatological balance relationshipshomogeneity and isotropy
spellingShingle Jelena Bojarova
Nils Gustafsson
Relevance of climatological background error statistics for mesoscale data assimilation
Tellus: Series A, Dynamic Meteorology and Oceanography
mesoscale data assimilation
background error covariance model
ensemble prediction system
climatological balance relationships
homogeneity and isotropy
title Relevance of climatological background error statistics for mesoscale data assimilation
title_full Relevance of climatological background error statistics for mesoscale data assimilation
title_fullStr Relevance of climatological background error statistics for mesoscale data assimilation
title_full_unstemmed Relevance of climatological background error statistics for mesoscale data assimilation
title_short Relevance of climatological background error statistics for mesoscale data assimilation
title_sort relevance of climatological background error statistics for mesoscale data assimilation
topic mesoscale data assimilation
background error covariance model
ensemble prediction system
climatological balance relationships
homogeneity and isotropy
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/16000870.2019.1615168
work_keys_str_mv AT jelenabojarova relevanceofclimatologicalbackgrounderrorstatisticsformesoscaledataassimilation
AT nilsgustafsson relevanceofclimatologicalbackgrounderrorstatisticsformesoscaledataassimilation