Evaluation of a New Quality Indicator to Estimate Satellite-Derived Atmospheric Motion Vector Observation Error

A new quality indicator for Atmospheric Motion Vectors (AMV)s has been tested at the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies. This indicator: the Expected Error (EE), linearly regresses components from EUMETSAT’s quality indicator along with additional vector and NWP information, against the vector difference between the AMV and a collocated RAOB. The EE promises higher skill than the quality indicator alone in predicting AMV error. Removing numerical weather prediction information from the regression still shows some skill, although it is less skillful than the full linear regression. An initial numerical weather prediction impact experiment using the EE to threshold suspect AMVs showed neutral results. Finally, a study is underway to investigate the EE as a replacement for the current quality control in the NESDIS operational AMV post-processing