Impact of Assimilating Underwater Glider Data on Hurricane Gonzalo (2014) Forecast

Dong, J.,R. Domingues, G. Goni, G. Halliwell, H.-S. Kim, S.-K. Lee, M. Mehari, F. Bringas, J. Morell, and L. Pomales, 2017: Impact of assimilating underwater glider data on Hurricane Gonzalo (2014) forecast. /Weather and Forecasting/, 32(3):1143-1159*, *(doi:10.1175/WAF-D-16-0182.1).

Abstract:

The initialization of ocean conditions is essential to coupled tropical cyclone (TC) forecasts. This study investigates the impact of ocean observations assimilation, particularly underwater glider data, on high-resolution coupled TC forecasts. Using the coupled Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting (HWRF) – Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) system, numerical experiments are performed by assimilating underwater glider observations alone and with other standard ocean observations for the forecast of Hurricane Gonzalo (2014). The glider observations are able to provide valuable information on sub-surface ocean thermal and saline structure, even with their limited spatial coverage along the storm track and relatively small amount of data assimilated. Through the assimilation of underwater glider observations, the pre-storm thermal and saline structures of initial upper ocean conditions are significantly improved near the location of glider observations, though the impact is localized due to the limited coverage of glider data…

Download PDF