ESTIMATION OF OBSERVATION IMPACT WITH AN ENSEMBLE SENSITIVITY METHOD

The ensemble based forecast sensitivity to observation method by Liu and Kalnay is applied to the SPEEDY-LETKF system to estimate the observation impact of three types of simulated observations. The estimation results show that all types of observations have positive impact on short-range forecast. The largest impact in Northern Hemisphere is produced by rawinsondes, followed by satellite retrieved profiles and cloud drift wind data, which in Southern Hemisphere is produced by satellite retrieved profiles, rawinsondes and cloud drift wind data. Satellite retrieved profiles influence more on the Southern Hemisphere than on the Northern Hemisphere due to few observations from rawinsondes in the Southern Hemisphere. At the level of 200 to 300 hPa, the largest impact is attributed to wind observations from rawinsondes and cloud drift wind.