2004: Use of Satellite Wind Vectors In the Italian Weather Service Numerical Weather Prediction System: Current Status and Perspectives

The increase of the spatial and temporal resolution of satellite-based wind observations, together with their improved accuracy, has greatly enhanced their usefulness in NWP applications, also in areas relatively well covered by the conventional synoptic network. Two types of satellite wind data are currently ingested in the Italian Weather Service regional 3D-Var data assimilation system: surface winds retrieved from the QuikScat scatterometer on board the Seawinds polar satellite and High Resolution Atmospheric Motion Vectors from Meteosat 7 and 5. The present paper describes the assimilation methodology, use of the Eumetsat MPEF Quality Indicator and wind observation error statistics. Impact trials have been conducted for both types of observations, showing consistent improvements in forecast quality, especially from the AMVs dataset. 1